


Dämon Wätcher

by ShinjiShazaki



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/F, F/M, Possibly the nerdiest thing I've ever written
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-15
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-03-01 14:58:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 44,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2777408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShinjiShazaki/pseuds/ShinjiShazaki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At age twenty, Sasha Braus figured she knew a number of things well enough to speak with authority.  She knew she was the best archer in the whole of Mitras, if not the state overall.  She knew that she was better in her physics courses than literature despite her love of reading.  She knew that Connie Springer was an amazing idiot boy who was legally able to purchase all the alcohol they regularly drank.</p><p>What she did not like knowing was that she had no idea what to do with archery, physics, and three good cures for hangovers after graduation.</p><p>Then again, at least one of those comes in handy when she and Connie are attacked by a demon one night.  It all has greater consequences when she gets to her first class and sees Mikasa Ackerman again, as Mikasa offers Sasha a chance to do something different with her talents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Small Favors

**Author's Note:**

> I've been made aware that the proper German word for the title is "Dämonenwätcher" for "demon guardians." However, I found "Dämon Wätcher" when searching for "demon guards," and I find this more aesthetically pleasing for a title and slightly closer to the phrase I wanted to use.
> 
> Just so we're all on the same page.

At age twenty, Sasha Braus figured she knew a number of things well enough to speak with authority. She knew she was the best archer in the whole of Mitras, if not the state overall. She knew that she was better in her physics courses than literature despite her love of reading. She knew that Connie Springer was an amazing idiot boy who was legally able to purchase all the alcohol they regularly drank.

What she did not like knowing was that she had no idea what to do with archery, physics, and three good cures for hangovers after graduation. Connie poked her side any time she brought it up while drunk, placating her by taking her to a nearby park and tossing potatoes into the air for her to shoot down. It helped during the summer break, but she refused his offer of margaritas the night before junior year commenced.

“I’ve got a class at eight tomorrow,” she said.

“Sasha,” he said sternly. “Why the hell did you pick a class that early?”

“It looked interesting,” she said, hitching her quiver higher on her shoulder.

“What is it?”

“Ancient lore two thirty-eight with Professor Hanji.”

He laughed. “Well, at least it’ll wake you up.”

“What?”

He smirked, taking two potatoes from the sack and juggling them one-handed. “Prof Hanji is _always_ wake. I had a class with them freshmen year at four, and my buddy Samuel said there’s no change between eight and four. It’s kinda weird.”

Sasha smiled and bumped him with her hip. “Slacker.”

“Bah!” he said. “Who gets you to cram with him for physics?”

“You,” she said in a laugh.

“And who finds all these damn heavy potatoes to pitch for you?”

“You, nerd boy.”

He grinned. “And proud! I’m going to make you miss one tonight!”

“I’m sure,” she said, bumping him again. He bumped back hard enough to make her stumble. She bumped back even harder and ran ahead, giggling while he chased after her.

It was a good evening. The long summer sun wasn’t quite there anymore, but Sasha still demolished every potato thrown into the air. Only when the sun had gone behind clouds on the horizon and streetlights had come on did they formally give up. Connie hurried to gather the chunks of potato back into the bag, intent as always on not littering. By the time he had finished, Sasha had retrieved all her arrows and sat down on a bench to wait.

“All right,” Connie said, sitting with her. “Still nervous about the ‘life after school’ thing?”

“Like you’re not?”

“Not as much as you. C’mon, you’ve got a great brain. What about a career in science?”

“You just want to see me blow stuff up.”

“Not true and you know it.” He leaned against her. “You like all that aerodynamic stuff. Maybe a plane engineer? Or you could make a jetpack. I’d totally be your guinea pig for that.”

She looked at the red sky to think. “Well…flight _is_ really cool. And you _are_ little enough to use as a test subject.”

Connie frowned. “If you weren’t so cool, I’d have to hit you for that.”

“I’ve got four inches on you.”

“Barely, and I’ve got more muscle! Geez, can’t a guy try to help?”

Sasha laughed and put an arm around his shoulders. “You did. You always do.”

Connie let out a pleased “hmph” and went to settle against her. A cold wind made him reconsider, and he stood to offer a hand.

“Come on,” he said. “Those clouds are really close and I don’t think either of us wanna get drenched.”

“Right.” She took his hand to stand, gathering her gear. They hurried back to the road, foregoing finding a trashcan to get to another streetlamp. While the wind did not pick up, the temperature fell even further when the sun fully set. The next gust made Connie’s teeth chatter.

“Th-that’s what I get for not bringing something heavier,” he muttered.

Sasha took his free hand. “My place is close. I can keep you warm if you don’t want to run in the cold anymore.”

He looked at her with a grin he once told her was very debonair. “ _Damn_ , extra suave points for you tonight. That was straight out of a movie or something.”

“I made that up just now!” she said. “It’s not my fault if being suave is a little predictable. It’s still better than some of those pickup lines you’ve thrown my way.”

He laughed and caught one of her belt loops to tug her closer. “But they made you laugh and kiss me, at least.”

“Fair,” she replied, and she leaned down to kiss his cheek. “Now we need to get home. I don’t think either of us want our hot significant other to get cold.”

Connie started to smile. His mouth fell open as his eyes went past her side.

“What?” she asked. “What’re you staring at?” She turned.

A creature in ratty black fur stood there, no taller than Connie. It bore the head of a hound with bloody fangs in bloody gums. Though it stood on two legs, its arms were too long to be human, and its hands were more claw and paw than finger and palm. Its eyes were bright red, as were the crisscrossing, sharp-edged lines along the creature’s chest and upper arms. The lines were brightest and most intricate at its heart.

“Uh,” Connie said, “great costume, bro. We’ll, uh, we’ll go now.”

Sasha nodded and turned with Connie’s hand in hers. She screamed when a clawed human hand shot past her to wrap around Connie’s throat. A man with tanned skin, blond hair, and silver livers patterned on his neck and bare chest, smiled a fanged smile that split the skin of his face to his ears. He picked Connie up off of his feet entirely, squeezing slowly with long fingers that wrapped around his throat.

“Holy shit, _no_!” Sasha shouted. She tried to pry the man’s hand open, but the creature pulled her away. Heart pounding, she tried to pull free. “Let go of him! _Stop_!”

Connie kicked weakly, but his legs could not reach the man. His hands spasmed as the man’s grip tightened. The skin on his arms began to darken, going from deep brown to solid black. His eyes began to turn red, and he reached for Sasha in panic. Sasha gaped, and then spun to smash her left fist into the creature’s face. It shredded her knuckles, but she was released when the creature startled. She bolted, but only long enough to get her bow, draw an arrow, and nock it properly.

She did not shout a warning, instead firing an arrow into the man’s eye. The sound he made was neither a yell nor a scream, but a wholly inhuman hissing shriek. He dropped Connie to try to put the arrow from his eye. Sasha put the bow back over her shoulder, ran forward, and grabbed Connie. Ignoring the dropped potato pieces and her arrow, she ran with Connie in her arms as he wheezed. She ducked around the first corner she could, sitting Connie down.

“Get _up_!” she hissed. “I can’t run that far carrying you!”

He choked, tilting to one side as his consciousness slipped. Black ooze came from the corners of his mouth.

Sasha scrambled behind him to pat hard on his back. “Wake up and _cough_ , dammit!” She froze at the sound of hissing. Looking up to the corner showed the creature standing there, starting to advance. Sasha caught her scream in her throat and scrambled for her bow and another arrow.

“That’s far enough.”

Sasha whipped her head about. A figure in a suit of form-fitting fabric stood beside her. The fabric was almost solid red, but broken by black: bands at the upper arms, a belt, gloves, and boots that stopped at the knee. A white band went down their left side, and an emblem of crimson fire was over their heart.

What seemed the most baffling to Sasha was the full helmet on the person’s head, red but for the large black visor. It was formed as though it had the swept-back ears of a wolf, and the bottom corners of the visor were pointed like fangs. She barely realized it was a woman until she spoke again, voice faintly distorted through a speaker somewhere on the helmet but still familiar.

“Sorry about this,” the woman said, “but you’re too far gone. We can’t purify you.”

The creature snarled, but then yelped when the blond man was thrown to the ground behind it. The woman looked to the corner as a smaller woman in a suit of blue and black strode into view. Her garb was identical to the woman in red but for the emblem over her heart, a crystal outlined in blue.

“Blue, can you take care of him?” the woman in red asked, pointing to Connie. “He’s not fully corrupted yet.”

“Fine,” the woman in blue said. “You let me take down the next one, though.”

“Fine,” was the weary reply. The woman switched places, the woman in blue crouching before Connie.

“Hold him still,” she said to Sasha.

She did so without hesitation. She watched as the woman set one hand over Connie’s heard and the other over his mouth. She pressed on his chest in a fast rhythm, and as she did she drew her hand from his mouth. The black ooze followed her hand, and Connie coughed as the last left him.

The woman closed her hand tight around the ooze. A flash of light came through her fingers. When she opened her hand, a crystal filled with black sat in her palm. She stood and dropped the crystal to crush it with her heel. Sasha stared, but whimpered when the heat of wild fire rose on her other side. She turned, only seeing the woman in red and two piles of ash.

“Get him home,” the woman in red said over her shoulder. “He’ll feel like hell for a while, but he’ll be fine. Blue, ready?”

“As always, oh fearless leader.”

The woman in red sighed before dashing off, the woman in blue on her heels.

Sasha continued to stare. For a moment, all she could do was hold Connie to feel his heartbeat and his breathing.

“Sasha?” he groaned.

“Hang on,” she said. “It’s just a little bit more to my place.” She stood, bringing him with her to hold him on his feet. She all but carried him home, forgetting there was anything of theirs left behind.

————

Even with three sugar-heavy cups of coffee in her stomach, Sasha was dead in her seat at quarter to eight the next morning. She got as far as taking a notebook and pencil from her backpack before putting her head down on the table and imagining going to sleep. There was nothing left in her to be startled when someone touched her back.

“Don’t tell me you pulled an all-nighter before the first day.”

She lifted her head slowly to look. Mikasa Ackerman stood next to her, dressed in a long black skirt, sleeveless white top, and a red scarf around her neck. Her brows rose at the miserable exhaustion on Sasha’s face, and she sat down next to her quickly.

“Sasha, what’s wrong?” she asked. “Did something happen over break?”

“Not really,” Sasha said, rubbing the back of her neck. “Well, not over break, but Connie was up all night with me. He’s—got a bad stomach bug. I don’t think either of us really slept.”

“Does he need to go anywhere?”

“No, but I’m probably going to skip my afternoon class unless he texts and says to stay.” She sighed and put her head down. “Screw it, I’m skipping. It’s just one class.”

Mikasa patted her should gently. “He’ll be okay. You’re good at fussing.”

Sasha meant to lift her head and stick her tongue out, but bit her tongue in shock when she noticed the deep scar under Mikasa’s right eye. “Oh my God, what happened over _your_ break?”

“Got in a fight,” Mikasa said, shrugging. “It’s fine.”

“You have a scar on your face, you ass! That’s not fine! Who did that to you?”

Mikasa smiled. “Sasha, no offense, but I don’t think you’d be able to take her.”

“Then I’ll put a boxing glove on an arrow and punch her by shooting it at her face!”

She shook her head, still smiling. “I can tell you had too much caffeine and sugar. It’s really fine.”

Sasha tried to protest further, but her tongue failed. She slumped in her chair, rubbing her face.

“If you’re _that_ hellbent on yelling at her, just look up,” Mikasa said.

She did so, seeing a short blonde woman in jeans and a sleeveless blue hoodie walk into the room. She carried a small stack of papers under one of her heavily tattooed arms, and the other hand carried a mason jar full of ice cubes. She went to Mikasa and Sasha’s table immediately.

“Here’s Hanji’s syllabus,” she said, letting two sets of stapled pages fall onto the table. With no one else to give papers to, she sat down on the empty table opposite then, opened the jar, and popped a piece of ice into her mouth to eat. She chewed the ice until it was melted, swallowing the water. Before she took another piece, she saw Sasha staring at her arms.

“What?” she asked.

“Do you have full sleeves of _Lichtenberg figures_?” Sasha asked.

“Uh huh.”

“In _electric blue_?”

“Uh huh. That your last question?”

Sasha frowned. “No, my _next_ question is how dare you cut my friend’s face and nearly blind her?”

“We were in a _fight_ , Potato Girl. Injuries happen. If you need to feel better, she broke my nose after I did it.”

“It—wait, what?” Sasha said. She peered at the woman’s nose. “Did…did she break it really badly? Your nose is pretty big.”

“Yes, ha ha,” the woman said. “My nose is big. Very hilarious on a woman, I know.”

“Wait, I wasn’t insulting you,” Sasha said. “But I’m still mad at you for cutting Mikasa’s face. So…I don’t…know what I’m saying.”

The woman ate another piece of ice.

Mikasa sighed. “For the love of God. Sasha, this is Annie Leonhardt. She’s Hanji’s TA in the morning. Annie, this is—”

“Potato Girl,” Annie said.

“ _Sasha Braus_ ,” Mikasa said. “She was my roommate in freshman year.”

Annie put another piece of ice in her mouth and cracked it loudly between her back teeth. “And now I’m your apartment-mate. Are you trying to show me how you want me to behave by holding Potato Girl up in my face?”

“Why do you keep calling me that?” Sasha demanded.

“Because you smell like potatoes. Why else?” She stood from the table as other students arrived, going around the room to pass out papers.

“Why are you rooming with her?” Sasha hissed, pinching Mikasa’s side. “She’s awful! I would’ve roomed with you again if you needed to split rent!”

“It’s fine,” Mikasa said, swatting her hand. “It’s temporary and I know how to deal with her being an ass. Worry more about Connie—you can make it through one class.”

Sasha sighed and set her head down on the table to rest. The door to the classroom burst open once again exactly at eight o’clock, letting in a tall person with tied back brown hair and square glasses on their face. They grinned as they went to the desk at the front of the room, tossing a satchel into the chair behind it.

“Good morning!” they said, spreading their arms in greeting. A number of people waved, Mikasa included, and the person nodded. “My name is Hanji Zoë, for all of you new folks. ‘They’ or ‘them’ pronouns for me, please, and we’ll end class today with everyone coming to me with a note so I can get your names and pronouns correct. Sound like a plan?”

Sasha sat baffled for a moment before giving a thumbs up. Hanji smiled and went around to the whiteboard. They picked a black marker, scribbling to check its ink.

“Let’s be honest now,” Hanji said. “Show of hands, who picked this class just to get a credit? I’m not going to punish you.”

A few people in the back raised their hands.

“Okay. Show of hands now for the people who read the course description, saw the phrase ‘ancient lore of demons around the word,’ and figured it’d be a really cool class?”

Many more people raised their hands, and Sasha and Mikasa were among them.

Hanji’s grin returned, brighter than before. “Excellent! It’s a really cool subject! We won’t get too into it today since it’s early on our first day and a lot of you look at twenty percent capacity.” They uncapped the marker again and went to one side of the board.

“Here’s what the course trajectory will be,” they said, drawing a rough timeline with doodles along the way. “Since this is a three days a week class, I’m breaking everything up in two to three week increments. This first section that we’ll get into on Wednesday will be breaking down the notion that demonic lore is restricted to religious texts or religion at all. Well, mainly the notion that Western religion defines demonic lore. It’s all a big cluster of stories everyone trades around with a number of regional influences and idiosyncrasies.”

They paused to consider a doodle of a creature with horns, a tail, and a pitchfork before scribbling it out. “Through the first half of the semester, we’ll go through the broadest stories out there. Abrahamic texts, folklore from Asia, Africa, the Americas pre- and current-United States, that kind of good stuff before going into the nitty gritty. The second half will be examinations of high-ranked demons and their tales.”

Hanji waggled their hand over their shoulder. “You can check the syllabus for a detailed grading breakdown. Final paper will be fifteen percent with some extra credit available, but you need to participate.” They flashed the class a grin. “I like surprise quizzes.”

They turned back to consider another doodle, one that looked like a werewolf, but did not erase it. Capping the marker, Hanji turned about entirely. “So did everyone get my email before the summer break about text books? No one bought them through the school, right?”

The class nodded.

“Perfect. I love our college, but those prices are robbery. There are codes on the syllabus to get digital copies for way less. All right, I’ll be nice now and let you get a second breakfast after one more thing. Write your name and preferred pronoun on a piece of paper and come see me so I can match name and face.”

Sasha sighed, smiling despite exhaustion. She fumbled through neatly tearing our a piece of paper from her notebook. Going slow to keep her writing legible, she wrote her name in large letters and capped it off with a signature of “‘she,’ please and thanks.” When she looked up, she and Mikasa were the last students left. Hanji leaned against the desk, waiting with a smile while Annie sat on the desk and ate ice.

“Sorry,” Sasha said. “I’m really tired today—I was up taking care of my boyfriend.”

“Not a problem,” said Hanji. “Come on up.” They straightened as Sasha stood, continuing to be patient until Sasha handed over her paper. They read it over before looking at her face closely.

“Memorizing my pretty face?” Sasha said, laughing a moment.

“A bit,” Hanji replied. “Just matching key features.”

“To…what?”

“To pictures taken of the owner of this dangerous little item.” They reached over the desk and into their satchel. They retrieved Sasha’s arrow, its tip now encased in crystal holding black ooze. “You were right to abandon this.”

Sasha stared. She barely realized when Mikasa caught her under the arms as her legs buckled. “W-wait, what? How’d—no, wait, you’d you get that? Why do you have it? You weren’t in one of those suits—I heard their voi—” She looked up at Mikasa in growing horror. “Nuh uh. No you’re not.”

“She could morph in front of you to prove it,” Annie said, toying with a piece of ice.

“So could you,” Hanji said, waving the arrow at her. “You like showing off.”

Mikasa put Sasha back on her feet, patting her on the shoulder. “You should probably blink now.”

“But,” said Sasha, “what the hell happened last night?”

Annie sighed, putting the ice cube back in the jar and capping it. “Hanji, are we _really_ doing this?”

“We are!” Hanji said with a smile. “Ping Mina, if you could.”

“Mina?” Sasha said. “You know Mina Carolina, too?”

“She’s my other TA,” Hanji said. “She vouched for you as well. Annie?”

She rolled her eyes, putting a finger to her left ear. “Mina, did you get that? Us plus Potato Girl.”

Sasha wanted to snap back a response, but Mikasa gripped her shirt tightly. The lights went out for a split second, her stomach and skin spasming hard. She coughed and gagged when the lights came back on, nearly stumbling because her backpack felt too heavy.

“Sorry,” Mikasa said, taking Sasha’s backpack and setting it aside. “The first time you teleport is always the worst.”

Sasha looked around. The classroom was gone, replaced by a massive room filled with books and half-built tech she could not identify. A nearby wall was dominated by an elaborate, enormous computer whose monitor was six foot square. A woman with her black hair in pigtails sat at the console, but turned around quickly. She crossed her legs at the ankle, waving at Sasha.

“Mina?” Sasha asked.

“That’s me,” she replied.

“You transferred to Garrison Technical College downtown,” Sasha said. “Why’re you mixed up in anything _here_ , let alone _monster killing_?”

“Not monsters,” Hanji said. “Demons.” They went to the computer, pulling up high def images Sasha had hoped were a very vivid nightmare. “What you and your boyfriend encountered last night were a low level demon and its servant creature. I call the creatures ‘inferni anubi,’ but—”

“Hanji, for fuck’s sake, we just call them hounds,” Annie said.

“Annie says otherwise.”

“But her nickname is the easier one,” Sasha said. “Why not go with the nickname?”

“It’s not a nickname, Potato Girl,” Annie said. “That’s what we call them. They do what we say and hunt what we tell them to—hounds are all they are.”

It was in that moment that Sasha became aware of how unpleasantly sharp Annie’s eyeteeth were. Throat closing up, she inched to hide behind Mikasa.

“No, Sasha, it’s okay!” Mina said. “Annie’s on our side!”

“Wait, holy shit, she _is_ a demon?” Sasha screeched. She clutched Mikasa’s arms, hiding behind her even more. “Throw a cross at her or something!”

Mikasa sighed, but there was amusement in the sound. “Crosses don’t work on demons, Sasha. Annie really is on our side, so you don’t have to be scared.”

“Did she cut your face with evil demon powers?” she asked.

“Potato Girl, I can hear you.”

“Did you or did you not cut her face with evil demon powers?” Sasha snapped, leaning around Mikasa.

Annie raised a brow. “I cut her face with a knife made of crystal. Then she morphed and broke my nose with her helmet. I cut a deal that says I won’t attack or kill humans unless I need to and I help out in this, and then I get what I want.” She went to lean against Mina’s chair. “So you’re completely safe, Potato Girl.”

“Come on, be nice,” Mina said, poking her hip.

Sasha turned to face Annie, but pulled Mikasa along to guard her again. “What do you want?”

Annie pointed at Mikasa. “Her idiot brother.”

“Um…for?” Her face twisted. “You didn’t fall in love with him, did you?”

“Please. I want to eat him. At least get his blood.”

Sasha’s mouth fell open. Without thinking, she said, “Go eat someone else, asshole.”

Hanji choked on laughter while Mikasa put a hand on her face. Annie sighed, shoved her jar in Mina’s hands, and untied her hair from its bun. She pulled off her hoodie, and Sasha blinked three times as she took in how the Lichtenberg figures continued up over Annie’s shoulders to cover the entirety of her chest. The figures grew more complex and brighter in color over her heart, and Annie held aside the strap of her bra to show its core: a jagged circle filled with symbols and marks that almost seemed familiar.

“Every demon has sigils like this,” she said, gesturing to her arms and chest. “And we can transform into titan monsters if we paint the sigil over our hearts with our blood.”

“Why not do that right now, then?”

Annie scoffed. “We can’t change back, genius. Not unless we want to go all the way back to the underworld and beg a favor for it, and that would be the luckiest you _ever_ were if you didn’t get killed for asking. And who would even want to be a hundred feet tall when the world is designed for human-sized things? Only someone stupid and desperate shifts when you can’t change back.”

“So…Eren’s flesh and blood lets you change back and forth? What sense does _that_ make?”

Hanji lifted a hand, opening a report on the computer. “Eren Jaeger has a very bizarre body. You can’t pick anything up with standard scientific testing-by human accounts, he just a robust young man with a very poor sense of self-preservation. However, Eren’s blood has a specific resonance with demons and the underworld itself. Demons are drawn to him, and he can even call demons to him when his blood is spilled. Mikasa knows about that charming problem.”

Sasha let go of Mikasa’s arms, moving to look her in the eye. “Did Eren accidentally sic a demon on you?”

“Well…in a way.” She lifted her right hand, showing the cloth wrapped around her wrist. “Do you remember how I never let anyone in the dorms see under this?”

“Did a demon bite you?”

“Not exactly. Here, look.” She unwrapped the cloth, revealing solid black lines that looked like barbed wire all around her wrist. She smiled when Sasha paled. “I’m not a demon. When Eren and I were nine, he cut his finger and I put his finger in my mouth to try and make him not cry. Humans shouldn’t consume his blood.”

“Why?”

“Human souls can be corrupted,” Annie said. “Jaeger’s blood makes humans susceptible to corruption, so when she swallowed his blood, someone tried to take her body and soul. They left that behind.” She frowned at Mikasa. “Among other annoying things.”

“Like what?” Sasha asked. “Can you set things on fire or bend big metal plates with super-strength?”

“Yes to both,” said Mikasa.

Sasha gave her a look. “That was a joke question.”

Mikasa stepped back, clapped her hands together, and came away with hands full of fire.

“Mikasa, that was a _joke question_!” As she scrambled backward, Annie pitched a large piece of ice at Mikasa’s head. In dodging the ice, Mikasa let the fire go out.

“That was just five seconds,” Mikasa said.

“Outside of your suit,” Annie clarified, voice dark. “I told you not to do that.”

With another sigh, Mikasa held up her hands in surrender. “You’re right. Sorry.”

Annie glared at her a moment longer before moving to walk away. “I’m getting more ice.” When she had gone, Mina frowned at Mikasa.

“I told you she really is concerned about you,” she said.

Mikasa frowned back, but Sasha asked, “What was that about? What’s bad about not being in the suit?”

“She’s _worried_ ,” Mina said, “that whoever tried to get Mikasa’s soul is going to come back for the rest.”

“Stop,” Mikasa said, voice soft as she started to wrap her wrist up again. “I survived, and that’s the end of it. The sigil hasn’t gotten any bigger in ten years, even though I’ve used these powers before I got the suit. She only wants me around to make sure she can get Eren’s blood at the end of this.”

“Okay, but how’d you survive the soul stealing thing?” Sasha asked.

“Grisha Jaeger gave me an injection of demon blood.”

Sasha held up her hands. “He just— _had_ demon blood on hand?”

“He told me at the start of this year that he was researching how to combine blood from Eren and demons to make mankind improve physically and mentally. I was a good product of a bad mistake.”

She gaped, mouth twisted. “Mika, your adoptive dad is a creepy dick. I’ve always said that, and now I’m proven right again.”

“I know,” Mikasa admitted. “But at least he put me in contact with Hanji. They figured out a way to let me protect Eren and kill demons without using these powers directly.”

“And that’d be the suits you two were wearing?”

“Got it in one,” Hanji said with a grin. “I built the suits to tap into the energy of the underworld without opening up a human’s soul to corruption. I, ah, _modified_ some of my colleague’s methods and…er, decision to use demon blood in the whole affair. For caution.” They coughed, looking embarrassed on a secondhand basis.

“Anyway,” they said, “the suits are triggered with a command phrase and salute. When she wants to morph, all Mikasa has to do is put her right fist on her heart and say ‘shield and defend.’ Any speaking volume is fine. Her morpher will teleport to her hand, be activated, and put her in her suit.”

Sasha looked at them blankly. “‘Morpher’?”

Mikasa reached into her courier bag, retrieving a thick piece of black metal cut in the shape of a shield. On its front was an engraving of stylized crossed wings, one side white and the other red. “Wätcher morphers. We become Dämon Rangers with them.”

“Okay,” Sasha said slowly. “So why are you telling me all of this?” She laughed slightly. “You don’t want me to join in on this, do you?” Her smile faded at how no one laughed with her. She looked at each of them, stopping on Annie when she returned with a full jar.

“Did you accept yet or not?” Annie asked.

Her mouth fell open. “You’re asking me to join you?”

“ _They_ are, and I don’t know why,” Annie muttered.

“Yes you do,” Mina said, backhanding Annie’s hip gently. “I need another human on the team before I can go out with you. You and Mikasa would kill me by accident.”

“Would not,” Annie said quietly before putting an ice cube in her mouth.

“You really want me to join you?” Sasha asked.

“You have the kind of decision making, quick reflexes, and ability to handle fear that we need,” Hanji said. “Without you there and without your decision to shoot the demon immediately, your boyfriend would have become a hound. You likely would’ve been his first meal.”

She opened her mouth, but only let out a small sound. She closed her mouth, sighed, and looked down to think. Eventually, she said, “Okay, say one of the demons does the whole turning-into-a-huge-monster thing. How’re we supposed to fight demons that are a hundred feet tall?”

Mina smiled eagerly, turning to the computer to pull up a video file. Sasha watched the footage, filmed from a camera on Mikasa’s helmet. High strength wires shot from contraptions on her hip, glowing white grappling hooks piercing tree trunks and digging in. The wires retracted as gas rushed in the background, propelling Mikasa past the trees with blurring speed.

Sasha’s eyes widened as the video played on, showing Mikasa flitting between the trees, seemingly weightless and bordering on flight. “How the hell is she doing that?”

Mina giggled, swiped the video to the side with a touchpad, and brought up a 3D image. She ran her finger over the touchpad, setting the image to slowly rotate. “This is the omni-directional mobility gear, ODM for short. It’s the next best thing to jetpacks I could make.”

“Holy crap,” Sasha said. “That’s _better_ than a jetpack. It’s just compressed gas, right? No fire involved?”

“Correct,” Mina said. “It’s an inert gas, so it can’t catch even if Mikasa’s fire gets a little too wild. The gas and the wires are both tied to the suit’s energy source and will regenerate automatically when necessary. The motors are similar, super high grade to get the wires going that fast and tied to the suit. I don’t know where we’d get this otherwise.”

Sasha stared at the image for a while longer. “Then…are we just doing this forever? Killing demons one at a time?”

“We’re trying to find the person who opened a path between our world and the underworld,” said Hanji. “It seems like they’re leaving it open to try and get to something, but we don’t know what.”

“Why doesn’t Annie know?”

“Because when I found out we had a path open again, I fucked off before anyone could stop me and wrangle me into doing something that could get me killed.”

Sasha looked at her with a tilted head. “Isn’t that what you’re doing now as a ranger?” She yelped when Annie landed a hit on her brow with an ice cube.

“I’m aware of the irony, Potato Girl,” Annie said, sneering. “But at least on this side I get to do the other things I want to do.”

She dried her face. “Um…like what?”

Annie raised a brow, and then pointed at Mina. “Did you know she has a pet dog?”

“Well, yeah. Her German Shepherd, Winston. He’s a doofus.”

She pointed at Mikasa. “D’you know what we have in our apartment because of her?”

“A black kitten named Ailuros?”

“Yes. We don’t have animals in the underworld. And we don’t have homes with soft beds or kitchens or couches to watch TV on. Why _wouldn’t_ I want to be here and have all that?”

Sasha considered her. “Does Ailuros like you?”

“Not as much as Mikasa, despite the treats I give him. Why?”

She shrugged. “There’s that gag in movies that animals hate demons and monsters. I don’t know.”

“Winston loves her, and you know how he gets around new people,” Mina said.

“I’m not kicking them or anything,” Annie said. She sighed. “Look, are you going to join us or not? More demons have been coming through and we should have more people to take them down.”

Sasha grinned. “Aw, are you asking me for my help?”

“Not very willingly,” Annie grumbled. “But you can shoot, and that’ll help. Are you in or not?”

She took a breath, closed her eyes, and opened them again. “I’m in. Do we get different colors?”

Grinning even more brightly, Mina got up to cross the room. She retrieved a box, speaking as she returned. “We do! I’ve made three other morphers: green, yellow, and pink—”

“Can I have pink?” Sasha asked. “That’s such a good color.” She held up her hands when Mina looked at her with a raised brow. “Unless you want that color. You have seniority on me.”

“You can have it,” Mina said. “I just thought you’d go for green.”

“If pink wasn’t there, sure.”

Mina snorted with laughter as she opened the box. “I’m so glad you said yes. Go ahead.”

Sasha took the morpher marked in white and pink. It was heavy, cool as metal should be, and she ran her fingers over the wings. “So—just the little gesture and ‘shield and defend’?”

“Yep,” Mina said. “I’ll show you.” She took the yellow morpher before passing the box to Annie. She moved away slightly, cleared her throat, and brought her right hand up to strike her chest, bottom of her fist over her heart with her elbow low. “Shield and defend.”

Sasha closed her eyes at the light that came off of the morpher. When she opened them again, Mina stood in full suit and helmet, her coloring yellow and a silver gear over her heart. Mina spread her arms briefly in display before reaching up to her helmet. She passed her thumbs over the sides, and the helmet popped open on hinges Sasha could not see.

“Easy as that,” Mina said. “Give it a try.”

She looked at the morpher and swallowed to speak clearly. She snapped a salute and said, “Shield and defend!” The morpher grew hot in her hand, the sensation spreading fast from her chest and hand. In a heartbeat, a helmet was on her head with her hair bundled up neatly. The visor made the world vibrant, the dimmer corners of the room utterly clear.

“Holy shit,” Sasha said. She looked around, staring at the way the sigils on Annie’s arms glowed. “Why are you glowing when I look at you in the helmet?”

Annie did not reply.

“I’m not trying to be rude, come on.” She pointed at Annie’s arm. “What’s with the glow?”

Mina laughed and went to her. She tapped on the visor, high and to the left. “Sasha, look where my finger is and blink four times really quickly.”

Baffled, she did so. “What did that do?” She jumped, hearing her voice come through an external speaker. “Oh, it’s not automatically on outside! That’s—interesting. Do we have private comms?”

“Four blinks to the right side,” Mikasa said.

“Okay, that’s cooler.” She flexed her hands, looking at the gloves on them. “Why am I not tired anymore?”

“You’re receiving energy from the suit to compensate for exhaustion,” Hanji said. “You’ll probably crash after you de-morph, though. It’s not a substitute for sleep.”

Sasha nodded and reached up to open the helmet. She brought it down to examine it. “Wow.” She looked to her chest, finding a seven-pointed golden star over her heart. “ _Wow_.” She shook her head. “Wait, now I can ask. Why were Annie’s arms glowing when I looked at them with the helmet?”

“Because the helmet’s making you aware that these aren’t tattoos,” said Annie. “Demons light up, humans don’t.”

“But only if it sees the sigils?”

“Right. If we cover up our sigils completely, you couldn’t tell.”

She pouted. “Then how do we find demons?”

Mikasa jabbed a thumb at Annie. “We can sense and track them.”

“She’s a good little puppy,” Annie said before putting another ice cube in her mouth.

“Wow,” Sasha repeated, fainter than before. “So—how do I get out?”

“Same salute,” Mina said, “but you say—” She saluted. “Lower shields.” Light came off the whole of the suit, leaving Mina in her street clothes when it faded. Sasha mirrored her, the morpher staying in her hand. She stared at it, unable to think of words.

Mikasa smiled. “Come on, I can tell you’re on your way to crashing. Mina, can you send us back to Hanji’s classroom?”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll come up a little later.” She went to the computer and keyed in something Sasha did not pay attention to. Her body flinched as they were teleported away to the classroom. Hanji patted her shoulder gently.

“I’ll get you a communicator unit on Wednesday,” they said. “You can get in contact with Mikasa or Mina if you need us. And Annie if Annie gives you her cell number.”

“Get it from Mikasa,” Annie said, heading for the door. “I’m getting breakfast.”

Mikasa sighed softly, but patted Sasha’s back. “Let’s get back to your place so you can rest. I want to check on Connie.”

“Right,” Sasha said, distracted. She hurried to put the morpher in her bag before they left the room. Hanji went off at a fast clip, humming cheerfully along the way.

“Did you bike here today?” Mikasa asked.

“No,” Sasha said, “too tired.” She rubbed her eyes as they set off. “You’ve seriously been dealing with this for years? When we were roomies?”

“No, being a ranger only started in the spring. Dealing with Eren has been that way for forever, though.”

She inhaled and sighed deeply. “Man, why the hell did I say ‘yes’? I’m not like you. You’re already a superhero.”

“What, because I have supernatural powers?” Mikasa asked.

“No, because you’re you. Perfect student who knows what she’s doing all the time, holding down a part time job without spacing out and getting lectured and all the while going around keeping this dumb little city safe. You even know stuff about politics around here, like when you lecture me to make sure I vote against this—uh. Incumbent mayor whose name I forget.”

“Rhode Reiss,” Mikasa said. “You really should vote for Erwin Smith.”

“But that’s my point! You’ve got it together and you know you want to translate stuff for a living! I shoot potatoes in the park with my boyfriend because I don’t know what I’m doing.” She sighed, putting both hands on the back of her neck. “Sorry. This is dumb whining.”

Mikasa rolled her eyes, smiling, and put an arm around her shoulders. “It’s not. And I don’t always know what I’m doing. The whole summer was me trying to figure out my new roommate, and I still don’t have her pegged aside from how she likes a ton of syrup on her waffles and caffeine makes her sick and pissy. She’s usually more of a pain than Ailuros, but he cuddles to apologize.”

“What does Annie do to apologize?”

Mikasa gave her a look.

“Oh. Um, right.” She coughed to clear her throat. “Is she…um, actually trustworthy? I mean, she’s really, really rude and I could hit her for this stupid nickname she has for me.”

Mikasa smiled wearily. “Annie’s had over a dozen opportunities to let me get killed in combat, and it’d be much to her advantage if I was out of the way. But she keeps making sure I don’t get in over my head.” Quietly, she added, “She keeps stopping me from using my powers outside my suit. Like she’s really worried that I’m still in danger somehow.

She chuckled. “She’s an ass, and I don’t think she’ll be nice to anyone but Mina, no matter how polite or friendly you are to her. But I think she’s going to work with us until we see this all through.” She tapped Sasha’s side with her fist. “In any case, we do need more people. I trust you—it’s why I suggested you last night after the fight.”

“Seriously?”

She pinched Sasha’s cheek. “Stop it. You know you’re awesome. You wouldn’t be my friend otherwise.”

Sasha smiled at her, able to relax on the rest of the walk. They went to the second floor and to Sasha’s door.

“Crap, wait,” Sasha said.

“What’s wrong?”

“I shouldn’t tell Connie, right?”

“You can tell him,” Mikasa replied. “But you need to tell him to stay quiet about it. He could get himself attacked if the—”

Sasha put a finger over Mikasa’s mouth, looking over Mikasa’s shoulder. She smiled and waved politely at someone coming up the stairs, holding her smile until they went up the next flight. She unlocked the door and ushered Mikasa inside.

“What did you see?”

“A newer neighbor of mine,” Sasha said. “Moved in around the middle of summer. I think she started at our college this semester, but I’m not sure. She’s not nosy, but she’s friendly and I didn’t want to make up a story if she came by to get introduced to you.”

“Point.” She took off her shoes in the entryway before stepping on the carpet.

“Hey, Sasha? Are you back?”

Sasha brightened, and she hurried to take off her sneaker. “Connie?” She went to living room, finding Connie mostly upright against pillows on the couch. A trash bag was next to the couch, filled halfway with tissues and paper towels covered in black ooze. He was pale and barely awake, but he smiled on seeing her.

“Are you feeling better?” she asked.

He coughed, but nodded. “I think I got most of it out. I’m not barfing anymore.”

She slumped with relief. “Thank God. Have you eaten anything?”

“A little toast.” He looked past her, lifting a hand. “Hi Mikasa. What’s up?”

“I came to bring Sasha home. She was too worried about you.”

“Aw,” he said, grinning. “My badass lady is being sweet on me.” He coughed again, getting a towel to catch what left his mouth. “Nasty monster shit regardless.”

“Monsters?” Mikasa asked. “Sasha just said you weren’t feeling well.”

“Nah, we got ambushed my monsters on our way home last night,” he said casually. “Sasha pegged one of them in the eye to save me.”

Mikasa smiled. “Is that so?”

“Hey, I don’t have a fever!” he protested. “I know what I saw! If it weren’t for Sasha, I’d be fucked!”

Mikasa held a finger to her lips to shush him. She pointed to Sasha, who had fallen asleep sitting on the empty part of the couch. “I’ll let both of you rest.” Connie went with her to the door, locking it behind her before returning to the couch.

Sasha was still fast asleep, never stirring when he put a blanket around her shoulders. He settled on his side, feet on her hip and head on a pillow. They slept until the sun set, and the first things Sasha did was to go into her back to find her morpher. She ran her fingers over the engraving.

“Is that a belt buckle?” Connie asked. “Pretty badass one.”

She laughed. “No. I’ll…I’ll tell you over dinner.”

“Pizza?”

She smiled and gently slapped his knee.


	2. Dry Runs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasha knows it's all a matter of trying harder. Trying harder in working through thought experiments, trying harder in understanding what exactly is coming for them, trying harder to be patient through her own nerves.
> 
> She tries harder to understand what Annie is after, she really does. For a little while, she thinks she's making progress on a personal level, and she is happy for it.
> 
> When Annie tells her exactly what she's after, Sasha doesn't have the right words for most of the night. She decides that "fear" works best.

“Can you fly when you’re in your spandex?” Connie asked.

Sasha sighed, putting a hand to her head. “No. For the sixth time, I can’t fly when I’m morphed. There’s this device called an omnidirectional mobility gear that I’ll use, but—no, I don’t fly.”

He looked at her for a while. “Will you _eventually_ fly? Like you kill enough demons and you level up?”

“ _No_ , Connie,” she said. “I won’t level up. It’s not a video game. You nearly got turned into a monster, don’t be an ass.”

He watched the way she stared at the ground ahead, pushing her bike between them as they walked. For the sixteenth time that morning, his feet dragged against his will, jerking in ways that humans weren’t meant for. She kept moving, not hearing his feet, and he swallowed.

“Sasha,” he said, hurrying to catch up. “Hey, I’m sorry. I get that it’s not a game. It’s just that you’re even more of a superhero now. Kinda overwhelmingly cool, you know?”

She continued to look at the ground, but lifted her head when he put a hand over hers on the handlebars.

“I’m really sorry,” he said. “Don’t go to class bummed out, okay?”

Sasha looked at him and took a deep breath. “Yeah. I’m still processing it.”

“But you’re not seeing Hanji or anyone else until tomorrow, right? You’ve got time.”

“Unless something comes up, yeah,” she replied. “I’ll be okay.”

“Cool,” he said as they reached the campus. “So we’ll both have decent days and you’ll come to my place so I can make you dinner if nothing else comes up. Sound like a deal?”

She smiled, about to nod. She struggled not to scream when Annie walked up from behind Connie and grabbed the back of his shirt. He yelped as he was pulled away from the bike and spun about. Annie peered at his eyes, and at his mouth when he stammered.

“Um,” said Sasha, “Annie? What’re you—doing?”

“Making sure he’s clean,” Annie said. She flicked his nose, raising her brow when he yelped again. “Good.”

“The hell!” Connie snapped. “Why’d you hit me, you ass?”

“To check your mouth for venom sacs,” Annie said casually.

He and Sasha both went pale. Connie asked, “You’re screwing with us, right?”

“Uh huh,” Annie said, and she turned to leave. Sasha grimaced, kissed Connie on the cheek, and hurried after Annie with her bike wheels clicking. Annie flatly ignored her, heading toward the on-campus diner.

“Annie, wait a minute!” Sasha said. “Why’re you here right now?”

“Mikasa didn’t make breakfast before she left.”

“Wait, that’s not what—”

Annie went into the building, leaving Sasha to swear and rush through locking up her bike. Sasha ran in after her, catching up while Annie perused cereal cups.

“I meant why are you here hitting Connie?” she hissed.

“Making sure he’s clean,” she said. “I already told you that.” She picked four cups seemingly at random, moving to the automated toaster and putting in two bagels. “I’m the only one who can check so far.”

Sasha glanced about, leaned down, and lowered her voice to ask, “You mean clean of demonic influence?”

Annie backhanded her nose without looking.

“Jesus, _ow_!”

“Don’t put your face that close to me.”

“Is that what you meant or not?” Sasha demanded, punching Annie’s arm. She froze as Annie did, mouth falling open when Annie turned to her. She took a large step back.

“Oh—oh my God,” Sasha said. She held up her hands and took another step back. “No, I’m—I didn’t mean it, I’m sorry.”

Annie’s brows dropped as she took a step toward Sasha. Her hands closed to fists; the muscles in her bare forearms bunched visibly. The sigils seemed to grow brighter. When she started to take another step, a hand grabbed her gray shirt’s hood and tugged her back. She started to scowl, but stared when a large bottle of orange juice was shoved against her chest.

“Sorry,” said Mikasa. “I had an early meeting with an administrator.”

Annie frowned at her. “For what?”

“Starting a martial arts group.”

He frown became a sneer. “ _Why_? You do enough fighting.”

“It’s a hobby,” Mikasa said. “I paid for that already, so drink it and stop being an ass to Sasha.”

Annie rolled her eyes, but opened the bottle before the bottles slid out the bottom of the toaster.

“Is Connie doing all right?” Mikasa asked.

“I think so,” Sasha said. “He’s not sneezing black anymore.”

“I checked,” Annie said, spreading butter on one bagel. “He’s fine.”

Mikasa looked at her with a raised brow. “You did what Mina said.”

“She _asked_ ,” Annie said. “And she did it nicely, at that.” She moved onto the second bagel, smearing peanut butter on it. “You know. That thing she always does to get me to actually do things.”

Mikasa sighed quietly. “Right. I know. Thank you for checking him.”

“Uh huh.” She set the bagels on her tray, moving to grab a few pieces of fruit. She did not look back at them, heading for the register alone. Sasha stared at her before looking at Mikasa.

“What the hell just happened?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Mikasa said, looking down and away. “Don’t worry about it.”

Sasha kicked her ankle hard enough to make her wince. “I know exactly what just happened. You’re doing the Eren thing again.”

“What?”

“The Eren thing. She did something to Eren that you don’t like, so now you’re being an ass to her.”

Mikasa stared. “I don’t—”

“Jean Kirstein got into an argument with him during Connie’s very first dorm party in freshman year, tried to punch him, and you’ve never been polite to him since.”

“I’m not—”

Sasha gave her a sterner look than any she’d given before.

“Sasha. Kirstein trying to punch Eren is worlds away from trying to _eat_ him.”

“I know. And now you have her word that she won’t do that and she’ll work with you. So maybe you should be nicer.”

Mikasa looked at her with a tilted head and a raised brow. “Weren’t you just getting menaced by the person you’re telling me to be nice to?”

“Yeah, but I hit her for no reason and that’s clearly a bad idea.”

She sighed.

Frowning, she kicked her ankle again. “Look, you want me to be on your team or not?”

“I do, but—”

“Then you better have a team for me to be on.”

For a few moments longer, Mikasa said nothing. Her mouth twisted. She adjusted her scarf. “I get it. Sorry.” She smiled slightly. “You’re still the only normal person who tells me off.”

“Good. You need an ass-kicking sometimes.”

Her smile widened. “Did you have breakfast before you came here?”

“No, I—” Her stomach rumbled to cut her off; she thumped it in retaliation. “I wanted to walk Connie here and he has a class an hour before me.”

“Then it’s my treat. Get what you want.”

Sasha grinned and hugged her. They fetched breakfast, taking a small booth in a corner. It was only when Sasha was opening one of her cartons of milk that she looked at Mikasa’s tray properly, and it gave her pause. Much like Annie’s had been, it was piled high with cereal and bread, but her tray also had a plate full of bacon and eggs.

“Um,” said Sasha. “That seems bigger than the breakfasts you got in freshman year.”

“It is. I burn through a lot of energy when I’m out as a ranger. I actually _lost_ fifteen pounds before Annie noticed and ordered me to eat something unhealthy.”

“Oh. Then why didn’t she have more unhealthy stuff? Or protein at least?”

“Believe it or not, meat makes her _really_ sick before noon. We didn’t discover that until she’d had five strips of bacon and a lot of eggs.”

She winced, looking at her own scrambled eggs. “Oops.”

“Right? I make her waffles and pancakes most of the time, but I’m trying to get her back on eggs at least.” She smiled wearily. “Slow going.”

“She doesn’t think you were trying to get her sick, does she?”

“No, I really apologized. I skipped work to try and figure out how to make her stop feeling so bad.” She lowered her voice to say, “I felt awful because she had that kind of look a kitten gets when you accidentally step on its tail.”

“That’s not a bad thing to feel, you know,” Sasha said, pouring her milk into her cereal. “She just seems a little…rough. How long has she been here?”

“Since the end of May,” Mikasa said, toying with half of a bagel. “So not even three full months.” She sighed. “We’re still not totally sure what she _likes_. Food, animals, media, smells.”

Sasha swallowed her mouthful of marshmallows and cereal bits. “No favorite person? From what I saw yesterday, it seems like Mina.”

Mikasa took a moment to chew and swallow a piece of bagel. “You’d _think_ , because Mina remembers to be nice. But she doesn’t visit Mina that much. Then again, she has this irrational hatred of her boyfriend, and Mina lets him stay over a lot.” She sighed and picked up a piece of bacon. “I don’t know.”

Sasha ate some of her eggs, looking around. Annie was nowhere to be found on the first floor, but she managed to spot her at a tall table by the second floor’s large windows. With her face turned away, there was no telling if her gaze was wistful. Sasha doubted it ever could be. She tilted her head as she chewed, watching Annie idly swing one leg.

“Sasha,” Mikasa said, nudging her foot.

“Huh?”

“I can tell your friend-making instincts are going into overdrive, so let me be the first to say this. Annie will hate you forever if you try to be touchy-feely and cuddly with her. And she won’t be polite like me—she _will_ hit you when you push her too much.” She sighed, rubbing her wrapped wrist. “We both need to take a page from Mina and be polite without getting too far in her personal space at once. Even if it’s just because we’re scared.”

Sasha looked at her remaining eggs, pushing them about before catching them on her fork to eat. She chewed without thinking, but smiled when she swallowed.

“Well, at least she already scared the hell out of Connie,” she said. “He won’t bug her.”

Weariness took hold of Mikasa’s smile again. “Just like Eren. For once in his life, he doesn’t try to pick a fight with someone who pisses him off.”

Sasha looked at her, but then looked at the table. “Has…she ever said what she’ll do when this is done? Or where she’ll go?”

“No idea,” Mikasa replied. “It’s hard to tell if she’d stay in one place or not.” Her smile lost any humor. “It’s hard to tell if she wouldn’t turn around and kill me once she gets Eren’s blood.”

Sighing softly, Sasha reached across the table to hold Mikasa’s hand. “Faith for now, I guess.”

She squeezed Sasha’s hand, smiling properly. “Faith for now.” She turned their hands over to look at her watch. “And my early class soon. You’re still waiting, right?”

Sasha leaned to check the time. “Yeah, another half hour. You go ahead, I’ll take your tray back.”

Mikasa chuckled, ruffling Sasha’s hair when she was out of the booth. “Text me if you need anything.”

“You too,” Sasha said, waving as Mikasa departed. She settled back, taking her time in peeling one of her two oranges. Across from her, Mikasa’s tray was neatly arranged, cutlery tucked under plates and napkins folded in dry spots.

“Bet you still take ten minutes to unpack your bag,” she mumbled, smiling.

“Then that’s not some weird new thing?”

Sasha choked on her own breath, putting the orange down. She looked up at Annie, trying to smile. The way Annie looked at her, one brow arched, did not make it as easy as she’d hoped. Her smile fell when Annie sat down opposite her.

“Um,” said Sasha. “Hey, I’m sorry for punching you before. I wasn’t trying to be an ass.”

Annie regarded her coolly, but said, “You only just got added to my list of human allies. I’m sorry for threatening you for no reason.”

Her mouth opened and closed, and then she smiled. “Thank you. And I’m also sorry for giving off such a bad impression yesterday.”

“You were tired and traumatized,” Annie replied, waving a hand. “Even if you were at your best it would’ve been weird. At least now you look like the person Mikasa showed me in that…that…” Her brows furrowed. “That word that sounds like where we are that has photos.”

Sasha boggled at her as she thought. “A…collage? A photo collage?” She thought further and went red so quickly Annie jumped. She put her head on the table and her arms over her head. Her voice was muffled, but Annie could still hear the embarrassed panic in it when she spoke. “Oh my _God_! Why’d she—come _on, really_?”

“What the fuck is your problem?”

“There’s only one photo collage of me that Mikasa has and that’s the one she made when we were _dating_! Why did she show you that?”

Annie looked at her blankly. “‘Dating’?”

She lifted her head slowly. “Don’t you know what that means?”

“Not really. I’ve heard it when I watch TV, but I don’t bother asking Mikasa what it means.” She waved her hand again. “This stupid English language has too many ways to fuck up anyway, like that collage thing.”

“Technically that’s a French word that English stole.” She smiled and pressed on. “I didn’t realize that you didn’t just _know_ English when you got here.”

“We pick up languages by hearing them,” Annie replied, stretching out her legs. “So when Mikasa and Jaeger started yelling in English, I got it. For the most part.”

“That’s really cool!” Sasha said. “So you could go anywhere in the world and be okay language-wise?”

“Essentially. Might take me longer in some places.” She pointed to Sasha’s other orange. “Can I have that?”

“Oh—sure, go for it.” She set the orange in Annie’s hand, sitting back to continue peeling her own. She considered a section, but did not eat it. “Did you come from a specific place? Like, does your home in the underworld have a mirrored location to somewhere on Earth?”

Annie gave her a curious look. “What do you mean?”

“I was thinking about what Hanji said in class about how demonic lore is really global,” she said. “I’m wondering if you had lore about you somewhere.”

“Oh, that.” She tossed a piece of rind onto Mikasa’s tray. “Hanji pinpointed it to somewhere in the highlands of…Tibet, I think. People knew me as a great devil of the mountains, seven times seven the size of the largest snow leopards, and _far_ more dangerous.” She chuckled, tossing another bit of rind to the tray.

“You needed to be _very_ careful in the hills,” she said with relish. “You never knew when I’d come out of the underworld through a snow leopard’s shadow. I’d scare you into a fall…and once you were dying on the rocks I’d come down to steal your soul and head back home to eat.” She caught sight of Sasha’s pallor and sighed. “Not why I’m here, Potato Girl. Calm down.”

“R-right. Sorry.” She smiled meekly. “You were just _really_ into your lore. It’s scarier because I _can_ see you as a giant monster snow leopard.”

“As long as I don’t shift, you’ll never know.”

Sasha hesitated, picking at the orange’s pith. “What did you mean before? About how you’d need to be lucky to go back to the underworld and not get killed for it.”

Her next toss went awry, hitting the empty juice bottle on the tray. She looked at Sasha with an unreadable expression. “Why do you want to know?”

“I’m curious,” Sasha said. “But I guess I’m more worried about what we’d be fighting if you’re that adamant about not going back.”

Annie sat very still. She swallowed slowly. “I don’t…I don’t want to talk about that.”

Sasha bit her tongue and nodded, and they ate their oranges without looking at each other. Sasha wiped her hands clean with a wet napkin, but could not look up until she heard Annie stand.

“Thanks for the orange,” Annie mumbled.

“No problem,” Sasha said. “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow in Hanji’s class.”

“Mina might get your ODM working today.” She rearranged the hood on her shirt. “Mikasa will let you know.”

“Cool!” Sasha said. Her grin slowly faded when Annie did not look at her. “I’m sorry if I said something wrong.”

Annie did not reply as she walked away. Sasha sighed before standing up and gathering both trays.

————

_Do you want to learn how to fly?_

It had stopped her in the middle of packing up from her last class. She stood staring at her phone and the message from Mikasa, mouth going dry. She took a deep breath as she thought of all the scenarios she’d daydreamed of, chewed on her lip, and sent a quick text to Connie.

_going 2 skip dinner. watcher stuff. sorry. :(_

She waited in the hall, staring at her phone. His reply took only seconds.

_it’s okay! be safe and tell me later! <3_

The tension left her instantly and she hurried outside to call Mikasa on the way to her bike.

“I’m in,” she said when the call connected. “Where should I go?”

“ _Meet us in room twenty in the science hall. Hanji will get us from there._ ”

She slid to a halt in the gravel near the bike racks and turned right around to run back inside. She took the stairs to the basement labs two at a time, smiling because no one was around. She opened the door to room twenty, finding Mikasa and Annie inside. Annie looked away from the locked glass cabinets containing chemicals when Sasha closed the door.

“Here,” she said, rummaging in her pocket. “Hanji finished this, too.” She retrieved a small device made of black metal with a silicone cover with a curved point. “Your communicator.”

“It’s also the tracking beacon for the teleporter,” Mikasa said. “You can’t teleport without it unless you’re with someone who’s got theirs.”

Sasha took the device. “And it goes in my ear?”

“Yep. Here, they’re kind of weird to give instructions for.” She took the communicator, gently taking the top of Sasha’s left ear between thumb and forefinger and lifting. Sasha spotted Annie looking at them curiously and aimed her eyes at the floor. Mikasa nestled the communicator in her ear, taking care to set the silicone in the curve between outer and inner ear. It did not move, even when Sasha shook her head.

Annie gestured to her own ear. “You turn it on by pressing on the soft bit at the very top. Hold it down to talk to everyone with a communicator and whoever’s at Hanji’s place. Ping Hanji.”

Sasha put a finger to the communicator, hearing a very soft pop when she pressed high on the silicone. “Um. Hanji?”

“ _Loud and clear, Sasha,_ ” came Hanji’s reply in her ear. “ _Ready to hit Stohess Park?_ ”

“Yes please!” she said, and she lowered her hand. The light of the world flickered before her, and then she was standing on a sturdy platform high in the trees. She peered at the ground far below, but smiled brightly. “It’d take forever to climb the normal way.”

Annie tilted her head when she looked at her. “You’re not scared up here?”

“Nope,” Sasha said, grinning. “I’ve climbed every tree I’ve seen ever since I was little. This is fun for me.”

“Hopefully,” said Mina, standing from the box she had sat waiting on, “it’ll help on the ODM, too. Let’s go ahead and morph.”

They all did so, taking off their helmets afterward. Mina pushed the box to Sasha, opening it. She picked up the main component of the gear, housing the gas outlet and wire engines.

“There’s going to be a button on the center of your belt,” she said. “Push it, please.”

Sasha nodded, finding it easily. On pressing it, she felt a system of support straps manifest inside the suit around her legs and hips, a sturdy brace doing the same on her back. Curious, she looked over her shoulder as Mina pulled at straps outside the suit and attached the gear to them. It did not sag in the slightest, barely pulling when Sasha swayed her hips.

“All right,” Mina said, “now find the button on your left hip.”

She pressed it, jumping when black holsters and hollow cables leading to somewhere intangible in the suit manifested at her hips. She took one of the two remaining items from the box, finding it to be a right-handed grip with two triggers, one on the index finger and one on the middle finger. Mina took the left-handed grip and screwed the hollow cable on her left side into its base. Sasha did the same with her grip, discovering a button at the top where her thumb would naturally rest.

“Let me guess at this,” she said. “Top trigger… _fire_ the cables, bottom trigger… _retract_ , top button… _release_ the hooks from whatever?”

Mina smiled at her. “Good guesses! It felt the most natural when Hanji and I built them. So, main protip I have is to remember to gesture _with_ the triggers. The wire engines follow the direction you gesture, so it’s not _just_ trying to angle your hips. You can fire and release the hooks independent from each other—better maneuvering.”

Sasha nodded, but thought for a moment when she looked at the top of the grip. A slot was cut there, and she started to lift the grip to peer into it. Mikasa hastily aimed it away from her face.

“Don’t look right into it,” she said, wincing.

“Why?” Sasha asked. “Is it like a lightsaber hilt?”

Looking lost at Mikasa’s weary sigh and Mina’s rolling eyes, Annie asked, “What the hell is a lightsaber?”

Mikasa looked at her, blinked, and said, “It’s a movie thing. I’ll find it for you when we get home.”

Annie’s brows rose slightly, but she only nodded.

“It’s a little like that, Sasha,” Mina said. “It houses an energy construct that becomes a blade to kill shifted demons. You create it by pressing everything at once, but we’re not going to practice all that now.”

“But how is an energy sword supposed to kill a giant demon?”

“When a demon shifts, their human body becomes part of it,” Annie said. She tapped the back of her neck. “Right here. Cut through that spot deep enough and they’re down for good. Even we can’t survive getting our spines sliced apart.”

She frowned. “Won’t a demon be trying to swat us if we go for that?”

Mikasa smiled at her. “That’s part of why you’re so important. Demons can be stunned by blows to the heart. If you get a clean shot, it’ll buy us at least twenty seconds of time where the demon can’t move.”

“Am I going to shoot the blades from these?”

“You and I will get to work on a bow and arrows soon,” Mina said. “For now, let’s test these out.” She gestured to the edge of the platform as she equipped her own ODM by pressing the button on the front of her belt.

“Helmets back on with private comms, please,” Mikasa said. Once they all had done so, she nudged Sasha. “Because I know you’re going to scream for the first two minutes.”

Sasha punched her shoulder. “Shut up and tell me how to use the gas.”

“Double tap and hold the top trigger just for gas,” Annie said. “Bottom for gas and wire retraction.” She held up her grips. “Ready?”

Sasha looked down again. She took a deep breath. “Probably not, but let’s do it anyway.”

Annie looked at her before casually stepping off the platform with one hand forward. A wire shot from its engine, its hook stabbing into a tree some distance away. Before she could fall far, she double tapped the bottom trigger and was pulled hurtling along. Once she had speed, she released the hook and fired the other at a different tree. Annie repeated this until she was over one hundred feet away, alighting on a branch with grace.

“Bet you can’t match that,” she said over the comms.

Sasha’s shoulders rose.

“Oh Christ,” Mikasa muttered.

Her hands closed tighter on the grips before she slipped her fingers over the triggers.

“ _Annie_!” Mina said, putting her hands on her helmet.

She took three long steps back.

“I asked you to _not_ bet Sasha anything!”

Sasha ran to the edge of the platform and leapt off without hesitation. She swept her left arm out, making sure to lead with a turn of her hips before pulling the top trigger. The hook barely gave any kickback when it fired, and it dug deep into the tree she aimed for.

A double tap of the lower trigger sent her rushing toward the tree, the brace on her back steadying her until she worked out the straps supporting her feet. Keeping her mouth resolutely shut, she released the left hook and aimed away with the right. The hook landed lower by aim and she turned her hips again to get the angle of the gas she calculated in her hang-time. Sasha held her breath, double tapped the top trigger, and shot down in an angled swing.

The wire wrapped around the tree, flinging her up and around fast enough to make her stomach spin. Following the count she’d figured in a guess, she released the hook to go flying up through the sparse leaves. When she plummeted back down into the forest, she screamed with laughter.

“Best technology ever!” she shouted, catching herself with both cables. She reoriented herself in the time it took for the cables to spring back from their stretch, finding Annie and getting to her in a few seconds. Her landing was not as graceful, but she holstered the grips and spread out her arms as she grinned and panted for her pounding heart.

“Ta da!” she said brightly.

Annie said nothing, shoulders slumped and head tilted. Even as Mikasa and Mina arrived, she was silent. She swatted Mina’s hand when she poked her shoulder.

“ _How_ , Annie started, and then stopped.

She lowered her arms. “How what? How’d I do that?” She blinked and looked at the forest for a moment. “Um. Doing physics thought experiments all day and applying it here? It’s…it’s my field of study?”

Mina laughed. “Annie had to catch me on my first test run because I missed a tree. She expected you to be just as bad.”

“You’ve done archery on horseback every break since you were little, right?” Mikasa asked.

“Yeah,” said Sasha. “And gymnastics in middle and high school because it was fun and easy for me.”

Annie was still and silent a moment more before sighing. “All right, fine. Good job, Potato Girl.”

Sasha laughed and threw her fists into the air in triumph. She dropped them when Annie jumped and retreated. “Oh God, sorry if I hit you! I’m getting used to the helmet still!”

“She was showing off and being proud,” Mikasa said. “Not a threat display, so don’t worry.”

Everyone looked at her.

“You told me that’s what you thought people in a sports game were doing,” she said. “I wanted to clear that up.”

After a moment, Annie said, “Thanks.”

Sasha looked between them without turning her head. When the tension made her neck ache, she said, “So how long do we get to stay out and play with our toys?”

“ _Only until dusk,_ ” Hanji said over the comms. “ _You and Mina need more time using the ODM in the light before you can make any night runs._ ”

She looked past the trees, seeing the sun already close to the horizon. “Oh, _dammit_.”

“You also have my early class tomorrow.”

“ _Double_ dammit.”

Hanji laughed. “ _Tomorrow is another day. Listen, I’m not picking up any demonic activity, so everyone should have a nice night off. I’ll teleport you all to your places._ ”

“Can you send me back to the science building?” Sasha asked. “I need my bike.”

“ _Absolutely. Ping me when you’re all ready._ ”

Sasha turned to Mina. “How do I make the ODM go away before I de-morph?”

“Button on your right hip,” she said, demonstrating. Sasha, Annie, and Mikasa followed her lead before de-morphing. Mikasa put a hand to her ear.

“Fire away, Hanji,” she said. She and Mina waved at Sasha before the world shifted and Sasha was left on her own in the classroom. She did not mind in the slightest, heading out to her bike with a smug grin on her face. As she pushed off, she barely felt the aches left in her legs and feet. It was soothing enough to run through more thought experiments with new information.

She eased to a stop at the last crosswalk before her apartments, the light turning against her. Humming softly, she waited for traffic. The sound of her phone ringing with a specific rock tune made her jump and reach into her backpack’s side pocket.

“Mikasa?” she said to answer the call. “Did something happen?”

“ _Well…no. I lost something._ ”

“At my place?”

“ _I don’t think so. I just can’t find some movies and Eren’s not answering his phone so I can ask him. You’ve got **Star Wars** , right?_”

Sasha looked at her phone for a few seconds before crossing the street with the light. “I do. Do you want to borrow the whole set?”

“ _If that’s all right._ ”

She smiled. “Sure. Give me a bit to bring them over.”

“ _Chinese okay for payment?_ ”

“When isn’t it?”

Mikasa laughed. “ _Thanks, Sasha. I owe you._ ”

“See you in twenty, Mika.” She ended the call, swinging one leg over to drift to the stairs. Inside two minutes, she was back on the road with a boxset stuffed in her backpack, and twenty minutes after that saw her locking up her bike at the racks near Mikasa’s apartment. She went up two flights to the top floor, knocking politely on the door of number one eighty-eight. The door was answered in short order by Annie, a black kitten riding on her shoulder.

Sasha’s mouth fell open. “Oh, come _on_! Kittens never ride on my shoulder!”

Annie smirked, turning to walk back inside. Ailuros meowed every few steps, tail curled around the back of her neck. Pouting, Sasha went inside and locked the door. Once she had taken off her shows, she followed after Annie while digging in her bag. She stopped short on entering the living room and seeing the oversized coffee table. It was completely covered in takeout bags and boxes, and she could not immediately find her usual order among everything.

“Is all this just for us?” she asked.

“Annie’s never had Chinese before,” Mikasa called back from the kitchen. “I got some of whatever she thought sounded good. Yours is on the black plate in the middle. Both of you come get drinks.”

Sasha put the boxset and her bag down near the table before following Annie. Ailuros meowed more insistently when he saw Mikasa, pawing at the air. Annie sighed and went to Mikasa.

“Incoming,” she said.

Mikasa lowered her shoulder nearest to Annie, saying, “C’mon, sweetie.”

Ailuros leapt onto her shoulder, purring loudly as he rubbed his cheek against hers. Mikasa gave him a scratch before handing Annie a jar full of ice and an empty glass. Annie went to the fridge while Sasha received a glass and a roll of paper towels.

“Annie?” she asked as Annie took a two liter bottle of orange soda from the fridge. “Can I ask why you’re always eating ice?”

“Water feels wrong in my mouth,” she replied. “With this soda stuff or juices, I feel like I’m actually _swallowing_ something.”

“I can see that.”

Annie nodded and headed for the living room. “Tell me what each of these are. The menu didn’t have pictures.”

“Oh—sure!” She followed, sitting on the couch when Annie took the armchair. She opened one of the smaller boxes, inhaling at a distance. “Okay, this one is pork fried rice. This place is always great, but their fried rice is _amazing_.”

Annie took the box, sniffed its contents, and took a tiny, cautious bite of the rice. She considered the taste before nodding. “This is good.”

Sasha grinned, feeling triumphant for no reason. Mikasa arrived shortly with her own glass and utensils for all of them. Annie took the fork and spoon she was offered, putting a large spoonful of fried rice into her mouth. She took a long time to chew, smiling very slightly as her eyes closed. Mikasa looked at Sasha in shock when Annie ate another mouthful and looked utterly blissful. Sasha’s grin grew brighter.

“Wow,” Mikasa said, smiling uncertainly. “I’m sorry. I should’ve offered this for dinner sooner.”

“Not like _I_ knew,” Annie said. She stopped before getting another spoonful when she saw the paper wrapped chopsticks in the nearest bag. “What’s that?”

“Chopsticks,” Sasha said. She tore the wrapping and snapped the sticks apart to arrange them in her hand. “You pick up food with them.”

Annie looked askance at the chopsticks. “I’ve never had this food before and you want me to try picking it up with _sticks_? Fuck that.”

Mikasa hid her choked laughter in picking up the boxset and going to the TV. The order of the discs made her hesitate.

“Why is _A New Hope_ first?” she asked.

“I found a good way to watch them that doesn’t wreck the original twists!” Sasha replied. “Four, five, one through three, and then six!”

“There’s _six_ of these things?” Annie spat. “Don’t movies take two hours to play?”

“We’re not watching them all tonight,” Sasha said. “I’m letting you two borrow the set.”

Annie gave her a strange look before saying, “Thanks.”

Mikasa put the disc in, sitting next to Sasha on the couch. Ailuros hoped down between them so she could get her food as the movie started.

Sasha sat back with her potstickers first, smiling because Ailuros curled up next to her. She resolved to keep her mouth shut unless it was to eat, wanting to catch any reactions without ruining them. She watched Annie out of the corner of her eye for the most part. Annie sat in the chair with her legs near her chest, hiding her food behind them as she ate.

To Sasha’s surprise, Annie made no comments as the movie played, only asking at one point what another box of food was. Though she did not look bored, she did snort with laughter at the lightsaber duel.

“Now I get the reference,” she said. “I’ve seen TV shows with better fighting.”

“It’ll get better,” Mikasa said with a quiet chuckle.

Sasha turned to her, seeing that that two appetizer boxes and one entree box were stacked before Mikasa, completely empty. She boggled, and again when she caught Annie watching Mikasa closely. They said nothing to each other, continuing to eat and watch the movie.

It was entertaining in its own right to watch Annie systematically devour a large part of the food, if only for how she enjoyed it. Sasha watched her and the screen in equal measure after finishing her foot, rubbing Ailuros’ back gently. Annie stopped eating shortly before the end, settling with a satisfied smile. Ailuros stood and stretched when the credits’ fanfare started, going to Mikasa. Sasha stretched as well, yawning with her arms in the air.

“Well,” she said, “I need to get home. Annie, tell me if you like the other movies.”

Annie shrugged. “Sure.”

She turned, saying, “Hey, Mikasa, can you—”

Mikasa was fast asleep, Ailuros snuggled in her lap.

“Oh,” Sasha said. She looked at the balcony’s glass door and found the sky to be dark. “Oh.”

Annie followed her gaze. “What’s wrong with the dark?”

“Um…well. There’s this thing that Mikasa does if I stay until dark. Which is walking me home.”

Annie rolled her eyes. “Worried about more demons?”

“Not really,” Sasha said, looking down. “She’s just really good at scaring other people off. I’m not yet.” She laughed, anxiety making her voice break. “Not without a bow and some arrows, anyhow.”

For a few moments more, Annie only stared at her. Sighing, she stood up. “Come on. I’ll walk you home.”

Her jaw dropped. “Seriously? Oh my God, _thank you_.” She hurried to put her shoes back on while Annie got her keys, and they headed out in silence. Only when they were several blocks from her apartment did Sasha find more words.

“Thanks again,” she said. “I know it’s probably just stupid paranoia, but going home in the dark is nerve-wracking?”

“It’s fine,” Annie said. “I know why you’re scared.”

Sasha smiled weakly. “Watch enough stuff already?”

Annie looked at her. “Why do you think I wouldn’t know about rape before I came here?”

It struck the words from her mouth and kept them from her for a long while. Eventually, she said, “I…I don’t know.”

Annie snorted, looking ahead. “You humans _love_ to think you invented all these cruelties. What the hell do you think demons do? Sit around and talk about the heat in the underworld?”

“No,” Sasha said, shrinking toward her bike. “Sorry. I mean, sorry if I brought up any bad memories.”

She inhaled slowly, quietly. “You didn’t. I just know why you’re scared. Mikasa said you haven’t done anything to train for a fight, so I get it.”

“Still,” Sasha said, “thanks for doing this.” She smiled. “I forgot Chinese puts Mikasa to sleep like nothing else. I shouldn’t have let her eat so much when I knew we were watching a movie at sunset.”

“Sasha.”

She nearly ran straight into a lamppost. “Uh—y-yes?”

“I need you to do me a favor.”

“Of course! What’s up?”

Annie stopped at the last light turning against them. She looked at the yellow bumps in the sidewalk under their feet. Her brows lowered.

“Mikasa is strong,” she said. “It’s more obnoxious than I can stand most of the time.”

“No argument there.”

“It’s why I punch her to put her in her place.”

She sighed. “Come on, that’s just rude.”

“It’s caution. Strength makes humans abnormally overconfident. Even demons aren’t as bad.”

Sasha squinted at her in the overly bright light of the LED streetlamp above them. “All right, that’s sorta valid, but what’re you getting at?”

Annie looked at her from the corner of her eye. “Don’t you think it’s weird that those sigils are still on her wrist ten years later?”

Her shoulders rose sharply. “Wait, what’re you saying? That Mikasa—”

“I’ve never heard of a human that _survived_ a corruption. That _fully_ survived.”

Her spine cooled even as her eyes widened. “ _What_?”

“Ten years is a long time, but I don’t trust a little blood to completely drive off whoever put their claim on her.” She turned to face Sasha properly. “She ignores all of us about not using her powers outside the suit, but maybe she’ll listen to _you_ if you were together before.”

Her cheeks flushed. “God dammit, you knew what I said before! Why did you lie?”

“I didn’t know _then_ , asshole,” Annie shot back. “I looked it up after I left because I thought it was weird of you to freak out over some photos of you two kissing when Mikasa didn’t. But that’s my point. You did that dating thing with her and she still has all these photos of you two together. She pushed really hard for you to be on the team. She cares about you even though you’re not still together. Maybe she’ll actually _listen_ if you ask her not to be completely fucking stupid.”

The weight of it made Sasha’s shoulders slump. “Could using her powers outside her suit kill her?”

“It could make whoever claimed her soul come back. So yes, it’d kill her, and we’d be stuck fighting whoever stole her body.”

“Don’t you know who it is? Aren’t those sigils recognizable?”

“If I _knew_ who the fuck it was, I’d have _told_ everyone by now, you idiot!” She stormed away when the light turned to let them cross, only stopping when Sasha managed to catch up. She grabbed a strap on Sasha’s backpack, yanking her down to eye level. “I need you to keep Mikasa from being stupid. At least until I can figure out who put those sigils on her and if they’re strong enough to come back to finish claiming her soul. Then I can try to completely expel them from her.”

Sasha felt her tongue grow dry. She frowned. “You’re just doing this for _you_ , aren’t you.”

“ _What_?” Annie snarled.

“All you care about is your deal with Mikasa. If she wasn’t your ticket to Eren, you wouldn’t care at all about keeping her safe.”

Annie bared her fangs, a rumbling growl rising in her throat.

“Don’t even act like you care!” Sasha said, pulling Annie’s hand away. “You said it yourself about your own race—you fucked off at the first sign of danger! What the hell do you know about loyalty?”

Annie grabbed the front of her shirt and dragged her to the nearby building, forcing her to drop her bike with a loud clatter. She shoved Sasha against the wall, fist pressed to her chest hard enough that Sasha coughed.

“Nobody does what Mikasa does for me!” Annie shouted back. “Nobody lets me try all these different things and apologizes when she does something wrong! No one takes care of me like she does! If you think that you or Mina are better when you’re being nice to me out of _fear_ and you know it, then you have no place telling me that I don’t care about what happens to Mikasa!”

Sasha was only kept on her feet by Annie holding her there. She stared at Annie in silence deep enough that she could hear her pulse. The sneer on Annie’s face did not reach her eyes. They looked fearful, somehow pleading. Sasha swallowed.

“I’m,” she whispered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think—you always act so pissed at her, so I thought—”

“You thought _what_?”

She grabbed Annie’s wrist with both hands when her feet slipped. “Mikasa doesn’t even know if you’d let her live after all this! When she thinks you’re going to kill her once you have Eren’s blood, why would I automatically think that you care about her life at all?”

Annie’s hand twitched in her shirt. Her sneer slowly faded. She put Sasha back on steady footing, letting go of her shirt and stepping away.

“Too bad for you,” Annie muttered, “but I don’t feel like giving Mikasa up to whoever put a claim on her soul. If you don’t want to help me keep her safe, then it’s _your_ fucking fault if I can’t do it on my own.”

Sasha could say nothing.

“Just,” Annie said, looking down, “promise me that you’ll keep Mikasa from using her powers outside her suit. If we lose her, we’re going to be fucked in all of this.”

“I’ll do my best.” She swallowed again and said, “I don’t want to lose her either.”

“Yeah,” Annie muttered. “Thanks.” She turned away, putting her hands in her pockets and staring at the ground. She said nothing more, and Sasha did not watch her for long. Taking a slow, shaking breath, she went the last small distance to home and sat in the dark of her bedroom. Eventually, she turned on her alarm and lay down to stare at the ceiling until she fell asleep.


	3. Born of Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the following day comes, Sasha is convinced that things are going well. Mikasa is listening to her and Annie is dragging her into combat training by way of an on-campus club.
> 
> She's pleased enough by learning how to fight that she doesn't pay much attention to one person joining their club by happenstance: her neighbor, Christa Renz. Annie, however, does, and she is displeased enough to order Mikasa to send her away.
> 
> The argument goes awry when Annie lets her concern and the reason behind it slip. A month passes and a thunderstorm rolls in.
> 
> And Mikasa understands why Annie told her that Christa had the scent of a demon on her.

Sasha made her way to campus in the morning with a dry mouth and numb toes. She did not bother trying to come up with conversation to sway any minds. There was comfort to be hand in the cool breeze that pulled at her hair, and she rode along a mostly empty sidewalk.

No one was in Hanji’s classroom when she arrived, and she sat down to doodle in her notebook for thought experiments. She had managed to get halfway through how to fire an arrow accurately at speed before the door opened again. Mikasa walked inside first, followed soon after by Annie.

“Did you get home okay?” Mikasa asked, going to sit next to her. “I’m sorry I fell asleep like that.”

“I was fine,” Sasha replied. “Annie walked me home.”

Mikasa’s brows shot up. She turned to look at Annie.

Annie shrugged. “Payback for the food and movies.”

“Payment is a better word,” Mikasa said quietly. “‘Payback’ is used more often for revenge.” She smiled. “Thank you.”

Annie shrugged again. “Potato Girl, you’re joining her little club thing, too.”

“Her—wait, what?” Sasha said. “That martial arts club from yesterday?”

“It’s a front for you and Mina,” Mikasa said. “It won’t look so strange if you’re practicing as part of a club.”

“Oh. Yeah, that makes a good amount of sense.” She smiled, leaning closer. “When’s the first meeting?”

“Friday at five. All of us should be out of class by then.”

Sasha thought, looking at Annie as her smile weakened. “Did you say ‘too’ before?”

“Uh huh.”

She went pale, cringing when her chest stung. “Um.”

“I’m not going to go all out,” Annie said, rolling her eyes. “I only really spar with Mikasa.”

“Same goes for me,” said Mikasa. “It’s safer that way.”

Sasha relaxed in her chair. “Oh, cool. I don’t want to take any of your punches.” Before she could think to stop herself, she asked, “Which of you is stronger?”

Mikasa and Annie looked at each other. Annie raised a brow.

“Well,” Mikasa said, “it’s debatable. I have more upper body strength, but I’ve seen Annie _break_ metal with her kicks. It was impressive.”

“Oh God, please don’t ever kick me,” Sasha said.

“You’re _fine_ , Potato Girl,” Annie sighed. “You’re an ally and I don’t hurt allies.”

“I don’t think you’ve ever really bruised Mina in any training,” Mikasa said. “Just me.”

“Your fault for not dodging.”

Mikasa shook her head, but smiled slightly as she did. When she did not speak again, Annie went to the desk at the front of the class to wake the computer.

“She seems like she’s in a good mood,” Sasha said quietly.

“She was almost through _Empire_ when I woke up, and she was pretty into it.” She smiled and nudged Sasha with her elbow. “So thanks for the lightsaber remark.”

“You’re welcome!” She looked up at a faint click above her, seeing the overhead projector starting to warm up. She looked down just in time to see Annie hop up to grab the pull-string of the large screen over the whiteboard.

“She’s really Hanji’s TA?” Sasha asked. “I thought that was a cover.”

“No, she’s employed,” Mikasa replied. “I can’t pay _all_ our expenses on my own. She just _acts_ really lazy.”

“I’m glad she cares about it that much. And the whole ‘protecting my allies’ thing, even if we’re kinda stupid about it.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Mikasa said, taking a notebook and pencil from her bag “She’s not the cuddly type, but she’s been trying harder lately.”

Sasha looked at her from the corner of her eye as she took out another notebook. She swallowed slowly, quietly. “She’s trying harder with you, too?”

“If you want to call it that. She talks more, but usually to tell me to stop pushing myself and that I’m only human.”

Sasha chuckled and hoped it did not sound awkward. “She’s not wrong, you know. It’s not like making fire in your hands is safe for anyone if you’re not morphed.”

Mikasa flicked her fingers dismissively. “I know how to control it. Don’t mother me.”

“Sorry, who had to clean up after her drunk roommate, her drunk roommate’s drunk brother and drunk friend, _and_ hold back her drunk roommate’s hair after one of the first parties we ever went to?”

Mikasa looked at her.

Sasha poked her shoulder. “I need to correct that to ‘drunk girlfriend who said she could totally handle that much whiskey.’”

“I apologized for that.”

“And I wasn’t mad because you did. But I’m going to be mad if you burn my bike because you were a smartass outside your suit.”

“I—”

Sasha gave her a look.

Mikasa sighed. “I hate when you mother me.”

“Because you wind up listening to me?”

“That, and you have a bad habit of holding it over me if you’re right.”

“Yeah, but you’re usually grateful.”

Mikasa smiled, shaking her head, and they both went quiet as other students came in. When Hanji came rushing through the door at exactly eight, Sasha settled to listen closely.

————

When Friday came and she hurried over to the on-campus fitness center, Sasha did not know why she was as nervous as she was. The workout clothes she changed into were clean and loose. She had been out biking throughout the week without any aches. Nevertheless, she chewed on her lip when she headed to the room Mikasa had told her about.

Loud bangs of a limb striking padding guided her the rest of the way, and she opened the door. Mikasa was holding a target mat almost as tall as her, letting Annie kick it with vicious precision while Mina watched. Mikasa turned first when Sasha waved.

“Ready to learn how to break a bone?” Annie asked.

“You _like_ putting things in the worst way,” Sasha replied. “If you can teach me how to hit things without flinching, I’ll be happy.”

“It’ll be fun,” Mina said. “We put our bags over there. Mikasa will help you wrap your hands up.”

Sasha headed toward where Mina pointed, but jumped when a small blonde woman burst through the door and ran to hide behind other target mats. She looked at them with panic in her face. Mikasa, Mina, and Sasha looked at each other, but Annie’s gaze remained fixed on the open door. A few seconds later, it was opened fully and a man stepped inside.

No taller than Mikasa, he was slim and brown-haired. He smiled pleasantly and asked, “Have you seen a little blonde woman around?”

“Yeah,” Annie said, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder toward the mirrors on the wall, “right there when I turn around. Now get lost.”

“Come on, I’m trying to find my friend.”

“Did I skip a word?” Annie said. “Get lost.” She saw him start to protest, but before she could speak, Mikasa dropped the mat and went to him.

“She said get lost,” she murmured. “Leave before I get angry.” She followed him through the door, brows low, and watched until he was out of sight. Back inside, she closed and locked the door, taking a piece of paper from her backpack to wedge into the door’s small window as a blind.

“There,” she said, leaving the door. She went to the woman, brows rising. “He didn’t do anything, did he?”

“No, but he really wasn’t going to let me walk home alone,” the woman said, smiling weakly. “Thank you.”

Sasha tossed her bag toward the others, but stopped short in walking over. “ _Christa_?”

The woman’s brows rose. “Sasha?”

“You know each other?” Annie asked.

“She’s Christa Renz!” Sasha said. “She moved into my building this year!” She hurried over, offering a hand. “Seriously, are you okay?”

“I am,” Christa said, taking her hand and stepping out from behind the mats. “I was just trying to find a room with people so I could get someone’s help. So…um…thanks to all of you.”

Mikasa caught her anxious glance at the door and said, “Why don’t you stay through this? Sasha and I can walk you home after that.”

“Really?” Christa asked, her smile bright. “I would appreciate that so much!” She looked around, taking in the sight of the padded floor, free weights in one corner, training mats, gloves, and hand-wraps hanging on a bar. “Are you setting up a women’s MMA group?”

“A small one, yeah,” Mikasa said.

Annie glared at her while Christa was not looking.

“Well,” said Christa, “ _I’m_ small. Could I join?”

Annie bared her fangs, brows low.

“I don’t see why not,” Mikasa said.

Annie flipped her off and stormed away to lay into the heavy-bag in a different corner. Christa jumped at the bang her leg made against the bag, turning about. Before anyone could stop her, she went straight to Annie and spoke.

“Thank you for telling him to get lost,” she said.

Annie grunted and gave the bag another kick, this time high. When she set her foot down, she noticed Christa holding out her hand. She looked at it, and then at Christa.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Christa said. “I’m sorry if I’m throwing your numbers off.”

Annie glanced toward Mikasa. Mikasa smiled back, making Annie sigh. “It’s—fine. Hi.” She took Christa’s forearm in her hand, shaking even as Christa stood confused. She saw Sasha tried to keep down laughter when she let go. “ _What_?”

“That’s not how you shake hands,” Sasha giggled.

“Here,” Mikasa said.

“What?”

“It’s how you shake hands where she’s from in Tibet,” Mikasa said easily. “And she’s got her hands wrapped, so that’s easier. Be nice.”

Sasha blushed when Mina nodded sagely and Annie raised a brow. “Sorry.”

“I’ve never met someone from Tibet!” Christa said. “Did you get your tattoos here or there?”

“There,” Annie said. “American tattoo places wouldn’t have gotten it right.”

“They show off your muscles when you’re up close!” Christa giggled. “They’re really cool!”

Annie gave her a look. She slowly raised her brow. “Aren’t you that girl who goes around shoving pieces of paper at people on campus?”

“Oh—yeah! I’m giving out leaflets for Erwin Smith’s campaign. Plus things for some clubs.”

“You’re a little weird,” Annie muttered.

Christa shrugged. “I’m okay with that. It helps pay rent.”

Annie hummed flatly, blinking when Mikasa patted her on the shoulder.

“We’re burning through our time,” said Mikasa. “Let’s demonstrate before we wrap up their hands.”

Annie smirked, adjusting the wraps on her hands while Mikasa dug through a pile of ill-sorted gear. She returned with red mitts, their palms large circles of padding.

“So,” Mikasa said, pulling on the mitts, “quick intros for Christa. I’m Mikasa Ackerman, the scary blonde is Annie Leonhardt—”

“Bite me.”

“—And she’s Mina Carolina.” She got the fit of her fingers sorted, turning more toward Annie. “For the rest of you, some of the first training you’ll do with me or Annie is getting used to mitt-hitting. We’ll put the mitts where your hits will do the most damage. You memorize better that way.”

She pointed with the whole of one hand, indicating Annie’s hands. “And let’s get this clear. Annie and I don’t always wear _gloves_ while we punch, but we’re the odd ones out. You three are always going to have your hands wrapped and you will always wear gloves when you do real hitting practice. Got it?”

Christa snapped a salute, making Sasha and Mina snort with laughter while Annie stared at them blankly.

“So,” Mikasa chuckled, “it’ll go something like this.” She looked at Annie properly, lifting the mitts to put her right hand over her heart and her left in front of that as a guard. Annie replied with a left hook to knock her guard away, stepping in to drive a right straight into the mitt over her heart. The force of the punch pushed Mikasa’s hand to her chest, feet shifting to keep her balance. She turned on the balls of her feet, turning to keep Annie from advancing toward the others.

She lifted her hands again, holding them near her jaw in another guard. Annie punched it away with a one-two combo, sinking down as she drew her right hand back. Mikasa brought her hands down in time to catch Annie’s dirty uppercut, the blow lifting her off her feet entirely for a moment. Smirking, Annie swept Mikasa’s feet before she was steady. Mikasa caught herself on the mitts, rolling away before getting to her feet.

“Thank you for demonstrating what you and I won’t be doing with anyone else,” Mikasa said. She tapped the mitt on Annie’s head as she came closer. “That’s the size of it. We’ll start with partners close in height, so Sasha’s with me and Annie will rotate with Mina and Christa. Sound good?”

They nodded, and Mikasa and Annie retrieved hand-wraps for Sasha and Christa. Once their hands were wrapped properly and they all had taken gloves, they split into their uneven groups. Sasha did her best to not fumble when putting on the gloves, blushing when Mikasa held them for her to push her hands into. When they were fastened shut, she looked up at Mikasa.

“What the fuck am I doing?” she whined.

Mikasa laughed. “Sasha, come on. Think about all those times you told me about boxing matches your dad makes you watch.”

“Me and Pa watching boxing doesn’t mean _I_ can box.”

She rolled her eyes and took Sasha’s hands one by one to lift them into a guard. With a few careful nudges of her feet and tweaks of her shoulders, she had Sasha in a proper boxer’s stance. She stepped back, lifting her right hand above her shoulder with the mitt turned slightly away from her jaw.

“Give me your best jab, right here,” she said. “Use your hips and make sure to turn your arm as you go. Knuckles against the mitts so you don’t rough up your fingers. Pretend I’m a monster attacking Connie.” She waited, clearly bracing her arm.

Sasha bit her lip. She rocked slightly to loosen her knees, lifting her right heel off the floor. With one last quick inhale, she stepped in hard with her left. Exhaling hard and short between her teeth, she rolled her hips and shoulder into the jab. The mitt let off a satisfying crack, Mikasa’s hand tilting as she rocked her head back. Mikasa smiled and suddenly jabbed at Sasha’s face with her free hand.

Swallowing a yelp, Sasha ducked down and brought her hand back to reform her guard. Mikasa stepped back, lifting the mitts with her right forward. Sasha rose up and moved in with a one-two. She ducked and swayed when Mikasa jabbed in return, still receiving a tap on the head when she was too slow.

Her arms, sides, and back felt like cracked stone when she stopped to bend over and pant. When she noticed Mikasa holding a mitt lower to invite a kick, she coughed out a laugh.

“N-nuh uh,” she said. “I’m not g-gonna be able to lift a pillow tomorrow. Not kicking t-today.”

“You did pretty good for raw fighting,” Mikasa said. “I only tapped you ten times in the last ten minutes.”

“Thanks for not hitting.” She stretched down to touch her toes, rolling her spine to straighten before shaking out the stiffness in her arms. There was just enough time to take a deep breath before she heard two remarkable things.

The first was Annie letting out a strangled shout.

The second was Annie slamming down onto her back after being thrown over Christa’s shoulder.

As Annie lay winded and dazed, Christa put her hands over her mouth. She took them away to speak.

“Annie, oh God, I’m sorry!” she said. “I thought you were going to grab me! I did that without thinking! Are you okay?”

“Oh shit,” Mikasa whispered. She hurried over as Annie coughed and tried to sit up. She tugged off her mitts to take Annie’s elbows in hand, bringing her up slowly. Still holding her arms, she asked, “Are you all right?”

Annie coughed again before leveling a glare at Christa. “Why the fuck didn’t you do that to the guy chasing you?”

“I can’t do that with people that much taller than me!” Christa said. “I’m really, really sorry I threw you!”

“It’s _fine_ ,” Annie spat. She pulled her arms free, but only moved to stand up. She tugged her mitts off and threw them at the pile of gear, starting to unwrap her hands.

“Let’s call it a night,” Mikasa said. “I don’t want anyone to get too sore to move. Christa, I’ll walk you and Sasha home.”

Christa nodded, but flinched when Annie left the room and slammed the door behind her.

“Don’t worry about it,” Mina said. “She’s only used to Mikasa downing her like that, so she gets mad when someone else manages it.”

“Well…all right. I’ll say sorry again if I see her on campus.”

“That’s the spirit,” Mikasa said, patting her on the back. “All right, let’s clean up and get going.”

They did so inside five minutes, and Sasha shivered at the cooler evening air against her skin. Mina split off from them to head to the parking lot, driving off in a different direction. Mikasa walked behind Sasha and Christa, keeping her pace slow.

“Is Annie just solid muscle?” Christa asked after a few blocks. “She was really heavy.”

“Basically,” Mikasa replied. “I’m the same way. I think Annie’s proud of it, though.”

“Stop it,” Sasha said. “You’re a very healthy weight for your age and activity level. Don’t be mean to yourself.”

“I wouldn’t mind putting on some weight,” Christa said. “Thanks for letting me join—hopefully I can get some muscle from this.”

“The more the merrier,” said Sasha. “Now we need one more person to get even numbers.”

“We’re good for now, I think,” Mikasa said. “We’ll figure it out.”

Christa nodded, the three of them going quiet for a few more blocks. When they stopped at a light, Sasha rocked up on her toes as she thought.

“Hey, where’d you learn that throw?” she asked.

“Watching judo competitions,” Christa replied. “I was never big enough to take classes.”

“You’re not that small,” Mikasa said. “Annie’s only, what, three or four inches taller than you. I can show you how to throw tall people.”

Christa smiled at her. “You’re sweet.”

“She gets that way,” Sasha said, patting Mikasa on the back.

Christa’s smile faltered as she looked between them. “Wait…are _you two_ dating, or is Mikasa dating Annie?”

Sasha went red, but Mikasa gaped openly at her.

“I’m sorry, what?” Mikasa said.

“Well—you two seem _really_ close,” Christa said, cheeks going pink. “But you looked so worried about Annie when I threw her.”

Mikasa stared at her a moment more before laughing weakly. “I was worried she’d hit you, that’s all. And Sasha and I _did_ date a while back, so there’s that.”

“Oh,” Christa said, blushing even more. “God, I’m sorry. That was rude.”

“We get it a lot from strangers,” Sasha admitted. “Don’t worry.”

“All right,” Christa said, but she said no more until they arrived at the apartments. She and Sasha thanked Mikasa as they started up their stairs. She still looked embarrassed when she said good night to Sasha, but Sasha only smiled and shook her head as she went inside.

Mikasa hitched her thumbs in her pockets as she headed back the way she came. She went two blocks before her skin cooled on one side. Not at all surprised, she stopped at an alley and looked up. Annie jumped down from the four-story roof on one side, frowning when she straightened up.

“Get rid of her,” Annie said.

“I’m not kicking Sasha off the team.”

“We’re keeping her. I mean the new one.”

“ _Christa_? Why? Because she threw you?”

“I don’t like her,” Annie said. “She smells weird.”

Mikasa sighed and started to walk again. “Weird how?”

Annie caught up to walk at her side. “She smells like you, but—” She struggled for a word, sighing when nothing came up correctly. “You don’t smell completely human. She’s _like_ that.”

Mikasa looked at her, brows low. “I didn’t sense anything from her. Is she being corrupted?”

“No, she just—” She struggled again, scowling. “Fucking _English_!”

“Does she have a demon’s smell _on_ her? Like people have perfume on them?”

“ _That_!” Annie said. “Christ, thank you. Yes, she has a demon’s smell _on_ her.”

“Really intensely?”

“Enough that it pisses me off.”

Mikasa glanced over her shoulder toward the apartments. “Should we go back and check?”

“If some demon is living there with her, it’d run before we got up the stairs. Besides,” she added, pinching Mikasa’s side, “you didn’t sense anything anyway.”

“I guess,” Mikasa replied, lightly swatting Annie’s hand. She looked forward, eyes on the sidewalk. “Can you tell whose scent is on her?”

“No,” Annie said with a shake of her head. “Same reason I don’t know whose sigils are on you. We didn’t hang around each other in our human forms, so I don’t know what any of them smell like.”

“Well,” Mikasa sighed, “damn.” She looked at Annie. “Why would a demon hang around her?”

She shrugged. “Dunno. Could be a bargain for power, could be the demon’s using her for something. My money’s on a bargain for power where the demon gets her body, her soul, or both.”

“And you just want to kick her out and leave her to that?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Annie snarled. “Because _you_ have a really shitty habit of trying to save everyone and I don’t want you following her and using your powers outside your suit!”

Mikasa sighed again, grabbed Annie’s wrist, and turned them neatly around to go into a building they’d just walked by. Annie’s frown faded out of confusion at finding herself in a restaurant.

“For two, please,” Mikasa said to the girl at the register. She tugged Annie along to the small booth the girl led them to. She sat on one side, looking at the other side until Annie sat opposite her. Once the girl had given them menus and gone off, Annie frowned once more.

“One,” she said, “where are we? Two, why are we here?”

“This is where I got that pizza you liked a while ago,” Mikasa replied. “And we’re here because I’m hungry and I don’t feel like carrying food home.”

“Oh.” She looked at Mikasa with her eyes narrowed and her head tilted. “You don’t like taking me places.”

“When I’m worried you’ll snap at someone, yeah. But I think you’re mad at me enough to get through dinner.”

Annie sighed and picked up a menu. “I’m not mad at you.”

Mikasa stopped short of picking up the other menu. “You’re not?”

“No.”

“Then why were you yelling at me?”

“Because you don’t really listen to _me_ if I don’t.” She looked away from her menu, raising a brow at the startled look in Mikasa’a eyes. “And you’re not even denying it.”

“But—you’re really not mad?”

“No, I’m not. I’m just trying to make you listen to me for once.”

Mikasa looked at her closely. She leaned in on her elbows to keep her voice low. “ _You’re_ why Sasha told me not to use my powers.”

“What?”

“Sasha doesn’t really ask me to stop doing anything,” Mikasa replied. “She’ll tell me why I shouldn’t do something, but if it pisses her off too much, she’ll walk away. _You_ got to her about this.”

“If you would fucking _listen_ , then I wouldn’t need to ask her for help!” Annie hissed.

“Why are you pushing so hard on this? I’m _fine_. I’ve been fine for years.”

“Because now there’s a steady flow of demons out of the underworld and I’m _not_ going to risk giving whatever put a claim on your soul an easier shot! You’re _mine_ and no one gets to take you!”

Mikasa’s brows rose, head lifting. She blinked a few times. “Annie? Is your face hot right now?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“That’s because you’re blushing. Really badly. Are you embarrassed?”

“I don’t know. Is that some human thing?”

“Um,” Mikasa said, drumming her fingers on the table. “Let me think. So…okay, what you just said about me being yours. Are you saying I’m yours to eventually kill and eat, or yours in an affectionate way?”

“The…second one.”

“But you haven’t been telling me that…why?”

Annie felt the heat rise into her ears. She rubbed them with a frown. “Because you wouldn’t believe that I wasn’t saying that to trick you, that’s why.”

Mikasa smiled. “That’s fair. I would have thought it was a trick right when we met, or if my blood did anything for you.”

“Uh huh,” Annie muttered. The heat in her face became uncomfortable. She pulled her hood up and over her face, putting her head on the table for good measure. She growled low in her throat when Mikasa put a hand on her head and drummed her fingers.

“Knock it the fuck off,” she said.

“Sit up and I will.”

“Tell me how to make my face stop hurting, first.”

“Hiding your face isn’t going to help, so sit up.” She was still smiling when Annie sat up, and she said, “You’re really bad at expressing affection.”

“I wasn’t doing that,” Annie grumbled, rubbing her face. “You would’ve gotten pissed at me if I did.”

“Why? What would you have done?”

“Slept on you.”

Mikasa stared at her. “What?”

“Like Ailuros does.”

She snorted with laughter and bowed her head to hie her giggles. “Oh my God, you’re a cat. You’re literally a giant cat in a tiny woman’s body.”

Annie kicked her knee under the table, but there was no real force in it. “Shut up.”

“Sorry,” Mikasa said as she calmed down. “Wow, I always thought you were really pissed at me. You’ve just been worried?”

“Yeah. You’re nice to me when you don’t have to be. I don’t want to lose you to whoever tried to take you.” Because Mikasa said nothing, she looked up from the table. Her face grew hot again when she saw the fondness in Mikasa’s smile. “Fuck you, stop making me blush!”

“Come on, it’s cute on you,” Mikasa laughed.

“I’m not cute,” Annie shot back.

“You are a five foot tall blonde woman who just admitted you show affection by sleeping on people like a cat. You’re cute.” She nudged Annie’s foot with hers. “I think I’d be good with you sleeping on me. Just don’t lay on my face like Ailuros does.”

“I’d be on your torso, don’t worry.”

Mikasa laughed. “Yeah, I’d be good with that.”

Annie gave her a curious look. “You’re not bothered by this?”

“By what? You liking me?” She shrugged. “I’ve always thought you were cute when you find something you really like, and it’s not like I’ve ever actually been afraid of you. Just give me a little time to get used to knowing you were worried because you like me.”

“I’m going to sleep on you anyway.”

“I’m pushing you off if you get too hot.”

“Fair.” When Mikasa nudged her foot again, she smiled.

————

It was easy enough to find videos online of boxing matches, tutorials, and tricks, and Sasha spent her evenings reviewing them before, during, and after homework. She watched with heat packs on her back, arms, and stomach when Connie did not visit. He helped massage her back and arms when he came over, adding commentary to the fights for her to laugh at.

A month of practice with the ODM and with Mikasa and Annie was what it took for her to stop being too sore to move in the morning. It was then that Hanji gave them the all-clear to start practicing night runs in Stohess. They went out in pairs at first, Mikasa shadowing Sasha and Annie with Mina. Their helmets magnified traces of moon and starlight far better than any infrared could hope, and it all would have left Sasha grinning were she not aware of the date.

“Is this typical?” she asked on a Wednesday morning.

“Is what?” Annie asked in turn, cleaning off the whiteboard.

“I thought we’d be getting in fights with demons by now,” Sasha said. “Or is Hanji only pinging you two when demons appear?”

Annie went still; Mikasa sighed. She said, “The communicators only have one channel, so you’d hear it. There hasn’t been any activity lately.”

She frowned. “Let me guess. That means there _are_ demons out there being really quiet and careful.”

“And we’re going to see hounds soon,” Annie said. “We build little battalions and come in to take territories.” She put the eraser down and went to sit on the table before them. “Whoever’s come up this time is taking longer because we keep winning. They want more hounds before they move.”

Sasha looked at her thought experiment notebook. She asked, “Hounds were humans once, right?”

“Yeah,” said Annie. “Once they’re turned, their soul is gone. They can’t come back.”

Her mouth twisted. “Great.” She tapped her pencil on the table as she thought. “Is there a way to pull data on missing people in the city?”

“Hanji tried that once,” Mikasa replied. “The numbers didn’t match the hounds we took out. They get hounds from other places and bring them here.”

“All to find Eren?”

“All to find Eren.”

“Can we just keep him in a bubble somewhere?”

Annie snickered. “We’d find him anyway.”

“What should I look out for?” Sasha asked. “Since I don’t have a sixth sense like you two.”

“To start, if a large number of hounds gather in one place, it’ll get abnormally cold,” Mikasa said. “It’ll get really quiet after that.”

“If you notice it, ping us,” Annie said. “Hanji and Mina are pretty much ready to teleport us at any time.”

She made a low grumble in the back of her mouth. “Great. I still don’t have a bow to use.”

“Calm down, Potato Girl. Just punch them as hard as you can over the heart. We’ll finish them.”

Sasha sighed, but nodded. She looked up when the door opened, brows rising at the sight of Hanji jogging into the room.

“You’re early,” Annie said. “Why?”

“I just wanted to let you know that Mina and I finished working on a sixth morpher,” Hanji replied.

“Why a sixth one?” Sasha asked. “Did you find other people?”

They grinned. “Petra’s interested, and I’d like to get into the field.”

“You and your—dating person?” Annie asked, one eye narrowing in confusion.

“Petra would be good, so shush.” They looked to the door when it opened again, smiling at the students who came in. “I’ll let you know when we’re going to test them. They’re going to be a paired set—they’ll boost each other’s power in certain scenarios.”

Annie gave them an odd look as they went to the front of the room. “Great. Now I get a tall weirdo to worry about on the ODM.”

“It’ll be fine,” Mikasa chuckled. “The more people we have, the less likely I am to use my powers outside my suit.”

Annie considered this. She nodded, said, “Good point,” and headed up to the front of the room to pass out graded papers. Sasha hid her giggling behind her hand.

“You’re finally listening to her about the powers thing?” she asked.

“Kinda hard to say ‘no’ to a little blonde woman who uses you for a bed,” Mikasa said with a smile.

Her eyes widened. Whispering, she said, “Holy hell, she _does_ like you! I thought she was being nicer to you lately!”

“Just don’t call her on it,” Mikasa said. “It makes her embarrassed and she hates blushing.”

“But that’s really tempting.” She thought, sighed, and shook her head. “No, I don’t want her to throw me in a spar. I won’t tease.”

Mikasa chuckled and patted her on the back. Class started soon after that, Hanji launching into an animated lecture about demons responsible for catastrophic storms. The thunderstorm outside only served to punctuate the lecture; the lights flickered a few times and helped set the mood. The power died completely just when the lecture was over. Hanji looked up at the lights, rubbing the back of their neck.

“I didn’t think I was _that_ enthusiastic,” they said.

Most of the students laughed, Sasha included. Her laughter died immediately when she saw the way Annie was staring at the window. Her shoulders were high, lips parted in a scowl. In the dim light, her sigils seemed to glow.

“Shit,” Mikasa whispered, staring at the window. She frowned, squeezing her right wrist. She looked at Hanji, trying to catch their eye. “Come on, dismiss us, _dismiss us_.”

Hanji saw her and smoothly said, “Okay, that’s all from me today. Stay safe in the storm.”

Annie was out the door before they had said five words. When Hanji was silent, Sasha heard the tiny pop of the communicator activating.

“ _North edge of our campus,_ ” Annie said. “ _They’re going to head straight onto campus to cull more hounds from the students. This storm is for cover, so hurry the fuck up!_ ”

“ _What_?” Sasha whispered to Mikasa. “They’re attacking in the day?”

“They want us off guard!” Mikasa hissed back. “Give your bag to Hanji and follow me!” She walked quickly to Hanji, Sasha rushing after her, and they both took their morphers before handing over their bags.

“Morph out of sight,” Hanji whispered. “I’ll get to the command center and ‘port Mina.”

Mikasa nodded, and Sasha followed at her side despite the gnawing fear in her stomach. Mikasa led her up two dark stairways, finding an empty classroom facing north. She morphed, heading to a window while Sasha morphed as well.

“What’re you two sensing?” Sasha asked over the private comms.

“More than twenty hounds,” Mikasa said, working to open the window without breaking it.

“ _Thirty-six!_ ” Annie’s voice said. “ _This is bullshit! Why’re they coming here **now**?_ ”

“They must want even more hounds!” Mikasa said. “Try to head them off! We’ll be there in a sec!” She finally forced the window open, jumping out into the rain and the thirty foot drop. Sasha held her breath and jumped after her. They ran away from footpaths, soon catching sight of Annie as she threw herself at a pack of hounds trying to creep onto the campus.

Sasha kept charging onward as Mikasa veered off to stop one hound that slipped by Annie. She angled her shoulders, lifted her hands, and threw all her weight into a right straight aimed for a hound’s jaw. Her left foot slipped on the wet concrete; her punch shifted as her knee bent to maintain balance. Her fist slammed into the hound’s neck. There was an almighty crack, wet and resounding, and the hound dropped to the ground without moving.

She had no time to swear in shock before another hound whirled on her, lunging fangs-first. She caught its jaws in her hands, arms shaking as she tried to hold the hound back.

“Fuck this!” she shouted into the comms. “Fuck this, fuck this, _fuck this_! No one’s your chew-toy, asshole!” Her feet slipped when the hound grabbed her shoulders. Swearing even louder, Sasha let her knees drop and drew her right hand back. A fireball engulfed the hound’s head an instant before she drove an uppercut into its chest.

“Keep an eye on runners!” Mikasa said. “Annie and I will get them here!”

She moved back as Mikasa sprinted in, bouncing on her toes as she watched. A pair broke away from the horde, running straight onto campus. She grit her teeth and gave chase, panting out curses when the hounds veered suddenly toward the quad nearest the cafeteria.

Panic filled her when she saw one person on the quad, umbrella pulled low over their head. The panic multiplied when a gust lifted the umbrella enough for her to see Christa’s face.

“Run!” she shouted as the hounds made a straight line for Christa. When there was no reaction, she hastily set her comms to speakers and bellowed, “ _Run, dammit_!”

Christa jumped at the shout, turning to look. Her eyes went wide as the blood drained from her face. Sasha leapt at the hounds, grabbing the fur on the backs of their necks to hold them back. They all pitched to the ground, sliding onto the sidewalk. Sasha drove her right fist into one hound’s neck, barely catching the other’s jaws when it threw her to the ground.

Pinned on her back, she barely had the leverage needed to hold the hound’s jaws open. Her hands stung as the fangs dug into her gloves. Her heart pounded; her breathing was too loud in her helmet. Lightning flashed in the sky, overloading her visor and blinding her as thunder rolled.

All at once, the hound went limp. Sasha threw it away, covering her neck as she rolled in the other direction. She blinked hard and fast, panting as she shook. When she could see shadowy shapes, she sat up and looked around. The second hound was dead, a ragged hole in its forehead. She scrambled away from it. Carefully, she reset her comms to the private channel.

“Are you guys okay?” she asked.

“ _We’re—fine,_ ” Annie replied. There was a muted crack before she sighed. “ _There. Did any runners get to humans?_ ”

“Two d-did,” Sasha panted. She looked around. “I…think.”

“ _Hang on,_ ” Mikasa said. “ _We’ll be there in a second._ ”

Sasha took to her feet, still panting. She looked around again. Christa was nowhere to be found. The hounds lay dead on the ground, showing no signs that they had been chasing anyone. She jumped at the sound of running footsteps, turning as Annie and Mikasa came up. Mikasa went to the hounds, setting them on fire to burn away without a trace.

“Why did you say ‘I think’?” Annie asked.

“I thought,” Sasha said, looking around again, “I swear I saw Christa here. The hounds went straight for her. But—I swear to God she was here!”

“Christa?” Mikasa said. “What would she be doing outside?”

“Mikasa,” Annie said quietly. “Did you sense the demon out here?”

Mikasa went still. Sasha went stiff.

“What’re you saying?” Sasha demanded. “That Christa—”

“She’s in contact with a demon,” Annie snapped. “ _Shit_.” She looked at the ground. “Who’s lightning? Come on, who’s able to do this?”

“ _I think I have a clue from Sasha’s visor cam,_ ” Hanji said over the comms. “ _I’m going to teleport you here._ ”

“Fine,” Annie muttered, crossing her arms.

Sasha exhaled slowly, frowning because it would go unseen. Just before the world tilted, something caught her wrist.

“Hanji, _don’t_!” Mikasa shouted, high-pitched with panic.

The world righted itself. Sasha turned around to see Christa behind her, dripping with rainwater and holding her wrist tightly.

“Mikasa, holy Christ!” Hanji shouted.

Sasha turned further. A dark-skinned woman as tall as Hanji stood with her arms wrapped around Mikasa. Her arms, bare to the shoulders, were covered in freckles and gold Lichtenberg sigils. Her grin was full of fangs.

“Thanks for the ride,” she chuckled. Before Mikasa could struggle, the woman tightened her grip. Electricity surged around them, making Mikasa seize violently before going limp. The woman let her drop to the floor when she had de-morphed, looking at Annie.

“Wanna have a go, little lion?” she asked.

Annie charged at the woman, creating knives made of crystal. As she did, Sasha saw Hanji go for a box on a shelf. She did not realize that Christa was sprinting after Hanji. By the time she came to her senses and moved, Christa had already caught hold of Hanji’s arm.

Just as Mikasa had taught her, Christa flipped Hanji off their feet and down onto their back hard enough to stun. She grabbed the box, opening it to take the two morphers it held.

“I’ve got them!” Christa said, turning around.

Sasha threw a left hook on instinct when she was close enough. Her fist didn’t get anywhere near Christa before a bolt of lightning hit her from the side and threw her into the far wall. Ears ringing, she barely heard Annie shout her name before she blacked out.


	4. A Claim Renewed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For some foolish reason, Sasha thinks the only thing they need to deal with after waking up is getting the morphers back. It seems a straightforward task.
> 
> She should've known better when she heard the strange edge in Mikasa's voice. She should've known better when she saw how nervous Annie was.
> 
> But hindsight is always 20/20, even when it's looking through black wildfire and finding the name of the long-lost claimant of Mikasa's soul.

Her head was splitting, it felt like her nose was bleeding, she couldn’t stop twitching, and someone was snapping their Godforsaken fingers by her ears.

“Sasha? Sasha, come on, I need you to respond!”

Something pressed down hard on the base of her thumbnail. She swore and pulled her hand away as hard as she could. She wound up slapping someone’s leg for her efforts.

“Whoa, okay, she’s up now.”

She blinked repeatedly, eyes jittering with her twitches, until she was able to focus on Eren Jaeger and Armin Arlert sitting over her. It only worsened her confusion.

“Sasha?” Mina’s voice said. Footsteps hurried over before Mina, morphed but without her helmet, dropped down next to Armin. “Hey, are you doing okay?”

“Nuh?” She groaned and rubbed her face. “ _Ngh_ —yeah? Kinda? Why’m I on th’floor?”

“Annie and Hanji said you were electrocuted by a demon,” Armin said. “Annie came and grabbed me and Eren and we’ve been watching you while Petra watches Mikasa.”

She boggled at him. “Wha? What happened to Mika?”

“She was electrocuted, too,” Eren said, frowning at something behind him. “Hanji said she got a bigger shock than you.”

“The hell, is she okay?”

“She’ll be fine,” a woman called from behind Eren. “She’s just taking a while to wake up.”

Sasha struggling through sitting, wiping her face when she was up. No blood came away on her hand, but she coughed all the same. She looked around, first seeing Annie prowling near the door. It was broken in half, the lower half nearly off its hinges. She was morphed, but without her helmet. Her lower lip was split, her nose bleeding, and Sasha stared at the bright blue color of her blood. As she paced, she kept throwing glances across the room. Following her gaze led Sasha to see Mikasa, unconscious on her back. Sitting next to her was a woman with auburn hair; Sasha recognized her from a photo she had seen on one of the bookshelves in the command room.

“Petra?” she asked.

“That’s me,” the woman replied. “Petra Ral.” She sighed. “I’m glad that you two were in your suits. There’s no telling how intense those shocks were.”

“Not as bad as they could’ve been, I’d wager,” Hanji said from Sasha’s other side.

Petra sighed, sounding more put-upon than before. “Mina, _please_ get them off the computer.”

Hanji said, “But—”

“I’ll work on reinforcing the suits against electricity,” Mina said. “Annie said you got thrown really hard.” She stood up, going to the computer console and pulling Hanji away from it. As they approached, Mikasa shifted.

“Ow,” she rasped.

Annie stopped pacing. “Mikasa?”

She slowly sat up, putting a hand on her forehead. “What _hit_ me?”

“Lightning,” Annie said, going to kneel near her. “Are you all right?”

Lowering her hand, she blinked a few times and looked around. “I think so, yeah.” When her gaze fell on Annie, she frowned. She took her chin gently in hand to look at her injuries. “Who managed to do that to you?”

“A demon named Ymir. She’s the one that shocked you and Sasha.”

Her frown darkened. “And she got in here because Christa tricked us.”

“Mikasa, wait a sec,” Sasha said pleadingly. “What if Christa is being manipulated? We don’t know if this Ymir demon has a hold on her soul—we can’t just write her off!”

“Sasha,” Hanji sighed, “they stole the last two morphers. Those are _paired_. They’re going to augment each other’s abilities if they morph. Regardless of what hold the demon has on her, we have to get the morphers back _before_ they morph and bind the morphers to themselves.”

“Or else what?” Sasha asked.

“Or else we literally have to pry them out of their dead hands,” Annie muttered.

“Is there any sign that they’ve morphed?” Mikasa asked.

“Not yet,” Hanji said. “We’d be picking up audio feeds from their helmets, for one.”

“All right,” Mikasa said, and she took to her feet.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Petra asked, standing and catching her wrist.

“To find Christa,” Mikasa replied, and she tugged her arm free. “She can lead us to Ymir and we can get both morphers.” She headed to the broken door and left without a word. For a few seconds, no one moved. Annie broke the stillness by de-morphing and moving to grab Sasha and Mina by the wrist. She heaved Sasha off the floor and pulled them through the door.

Sasha said, “Annie, wait a—”

“De-morph,” Annie said, head turned to Mina.

She did so, but asked, “Why? What’s going on?”

Annie shook her head, pace slowing when they heard their communicators activate.

“ _Hanji, send me downtown_ ,” Mikasa said.

Annie dropped Sasha’s hand to reach her communicator. “The rest of us, too.”

“ _Well…all right_ ,” Hanji said. “ _One second_.”

The world tilted; they were immediately drenched by the torrential rain when they appeared in an alleyway. Mikasa turned to look at them with a raised brow and a frown.

“I don’t need help,” she said. “Let Sasha sit down somewhere dry.”

There was a hard edge in her eyes and a vicious tone in her voice that drove the grogginess out of Sasha’s body. Quickly, she said, “No, I’m fine. Christa knows me a little better, so let me help.”

She sighed through her nose. “ _Fine_.” She turned and walked away, but they did not immediately follow. Sasha and Mina looked at Annie, who looked back with uncertainty in her eyes. She jogged after Mikasa, leaving them to follow as best they could. Mikasa’s pace was swift; her gaze was fixed. There was no sign that she was searching, only that she was tracking something down.

“We’re not going to check Christa’s apartment?” Sasha asked.

“Do you think the demon would let her go back there?” Mina asked in turn.

“It’d make sense,” Annie said. “Humans live there, so Ymir would be betting that we couldn’t make any moves.”

“They’re here,” Mikasa said flatly. “And they brought more hounds.”

Annie gaped at her. “Wait, what?”

A scream of fright rose past the rain. Before anyone could protest, Mikasa sprinted away. Annie morphed and followed, but Sasha grabbed Mina’s arm before she could do the same.

“We need to find Christa first,” Sasha said. “If we can convince her to give the morphers back, then Mikasa can’t be so pissed at _her_.”

Mina glanced away when another scream cut through the rain. She bit her lip, but nodded. “Come on. If she’s with the demon, she should be somewhere either open or higher up to watch the hounds.”

Sasha looked about to get her bearings. On seeing a familiar storefront, she turned to the other side of the street and took a few shaky running steps. She was steady by the time she reached the sidewalk, and Mina kept pace.

“There’s that open plaza in front of the movie theater! Sasha said. “And it’s got a big long sidewalk for blocks from there! That’s my bet!”

“Better than nothing,” Mina replied, and they both ran faster when more screaming reached them. With the violence of the storm and the late hour, few people were in the streets, and they grew fewer the closer they drew to the theater. They reached the open boulevard at the same time, panting and trying to peer through the downpour.

Sasha caught sight of the same green umbrella she had seen on campus, fluttering slightly in the wind. She frowned, took a deep breath, and ran flat out to reach the short person holding it.

“Christa!” she shouted over the rain.

The umbrella rose enough to show Christa’s face. There was no kindness in her face, but nor was there anxiety. She stood her ground as Sasha and Mina ran up, tightening her hold on her umbrella.

“You have to give the morphers back!” Sasha said. “You can’t let a demon have one!”

“No,” Christa said.

“Look, whatever hold the demon has on you is something we can fix!” Mina said. “But you need to give the morphers back before she uses one!”

“I said ‘no,’” Christa replied. “We’re not giving them back.”

Sasha, head pounding out of time with the drone of the rain, scowled and said, “You don’t get how bad this is! Just—just come back with us and we’ll figure out a way to break the demon’s hold on you!” She reached out to grab Christa’s arm.

She stepped away before Sasha could touch her. Brows low, she said, “Ymir doesn’t have a hold on me! It was my idea to steal the morphers!”

They both stared at her. They did not stammer or move. Because they were so still, it made it that much easier to hear another voice.

“So this is _your_ fault,” said Mikasa.

They turned, seeing Mikasa standing near them, knuckles covered in blood and black ooze. Sasha stepped back without knowing why, feeling Mina do the same next to her. Christa did not move, but the pallor in her face showed it was not from defiance. Her shoulders rose as Mikasa began to slowly walk toward her.

“It’s your fault people are panicking,” she said. “Your fault there are so many hounds.” Her brows dropped. “ _Your_ fault Sasha and Hanji were hurt.”

The air grew frigid as Mikasa drew closer, and then painfully hot as she passed by. Sasha said, “Mikasa, what the hell are you—”

Mikasa’s left hand snapped out. She slapped the umbrella from Christa’s hand before grabbing hold of her coat, lifting her until she was balanced precariously on her toes.

“ _Your_ fault I was shocked,” she said, baring her teeth.

From up the street, Annie shouted, “ _Mikasa_!”

The scowl darkened. Horror filling her gut, Sasha saw that Mikasa’s eyeteeth had grown unnaturally sharp. There were flecks of bloody red in her irises.

“And worst of all,” Mikasa snarled, drawing her right arm back, “it’s _your_ fault the little lion was hurt.” As she closed her hand into a fist, the rain near her arm exploded into steam. Her sleeve caught fire, and the wrap around her wrist did the same. They all gaped at the fire, solid black touched with crimson. The sigils on her wrist were aglow with the same crimson color, and they writhed as they grew.

“Mikasa, _no_!” Sasha shouted.

“ _Ymir_!” Christa screamed.

In the same moment, Annie leapt onto Mikasa’s back and the demon from before dashed in to grab Christa. As Christa was pulled free, coat tearing, Annie wrapped her legs around Mikasa’s waist and grabbed her right arm. The black fire caught in the fabric of her gloves, making her swear both in pain and in rage.

“Stohess!” Mina said, hand on her communicator. “Hanji, fucking send us to Stohess!”

There was a moment where it was clear Hanji was too startled to move. Sasha turned and took the three long steps she needed to grab Christa’s elbow while Ymir was still holding her. When the world righted itself, they were all in the forest in Stohess Park.

“Why the fuck did you drag us here, you ass?” Ymir snapped at her. A flare of heat and light made her grimace and turn away to shield Christa. Sasha squinted through the murky darkness in the forest, able to see Annie plummet from being thrown in the air, steaming from heat. Mikasa stood in her suit, shoulders heaving as bands of black fire spun at her wrists. Mina morphed and ran to help Annie to her feet.

“Because whatever’s happening to Mikasa is _your_ fault!” Sasha shouted back, punching her shoulder. “Either you help us fix this or I’m aiming her at you and letting her tear you apart!”

“Ain’t my problem if you idiots let her live this long,” Ymir said. “Good luck putting her down.” She bent her knees to prepare to jump.

Sasha smashed her best right hook into her nose. Gold blood spurted over her knuckles as Ymir stumbled and hit the ground. Christa shot to her feet, spreading her arms.

“Shield and defend!” Sasha bellowed. “That’s the activation phrase! Help us stop this and I’ll figure out a way to let you assholes keep the morphers!” Not bothering to make sure they followed, she morphed and bolted.

Mikasa was stumbling through blows, wide and brutal punches missing by feet but searing the air. Her feet were unsteady in the mud and loose leaves, but even when Annie darted in and tried to sweep her legs, she would not fall. It took an effort between her and Mina, Annie driving Mikasa backward with sharp punches to her gut and shoulders while Mina kept out of sight, to make any difference. But even when Mikasa stumbled and fell from Mina kicking her knees out from behind, she flipped over on her hands to spring back and away. Swirls of black fire caught in the wet leaves; Sasha hurried to stomp them out.

“Mikasa, snap out of it!” Mina pleaded. “You’re supposed to be fine, remember?”

“I don’t know if _she’s_ conscious in there,” Annie muttered. She took a deep breath and stepped forward. She lifted her hands slowly. “Mikasa, look at me.”

The visor hid her eyes completely; there was no telling where she looked.

Annie’s fingers twitched, hands shaking. “Dammit, come on! You have to let me put a seal on your wrist before it gets any worse!”

A tremor went through Mikasa’s spine. The faintest exhale was audible over the comms. Sounding drunk and barely conscious, Mikasa said, “An…nie?”

“Yes, it’s me. It’s me in the blue suit. You know that.” She swallowed, curling her fingers. “Just try to put the fire out and let me put a seal on your wrist. Okay? You can do that.”

Mikasa lifted her hands and looked at the black fire. She flexed her fingers; the fire wove itself around them and grew larger. Before any of them could speak, Mikasa turned. They looked at found Ymir and Christa standing nearby. Mikasa’s shoulders rose, spine curling forward. Ymir pushed Christa out of the way as Mikasa charged at them.

It was in a tenth of a second that Mikasa was across the yards of distance. Knees bending, fire swirling around her entire arm, she threw an uppercut that brushed against the ground. Ymir did was she could to block with her forearms crossed over her chest, but the explosion that came from the impact of Mikasa’s fist threw her off her feet and into a nearby tree hard enough to shatter the bark. As she dropped to the ground, Mikasa turned on Christa.

“Mikasa, _stop_!” Sasha screamed as Annie started to run.

Utterly pale, eyes bright, Christa clutched the green morpher in her right hand, snapped the same salute as Saha had done, and shouted, “Shield and defend!”

The flare of light that came with her morphing did not slow Mikasa in the slightest. The suit, however, gave Christa enough speed to lift her hands into a guard. As Mikasa’s fist approached, a web of green lightning spread from Christa’s arms. It caught Mikasa’s fist, stopping it dead and making her lurch from spoiled momentum. When she tried to pull free, the lightning kept her still. She lifted her left arm, a black fireball building in her palm.

“Shield and defend!” Ymir bellowed as she sprinted up behind Christa. She leapt, morphing in midair with the purple morpher pressed to her chest, and landed on Mikasa. The green lightning broke apart, purple lightning surging down Ymir’s arms as she grabbed Mikasa’s hands. Although Mikasa tilted backward with Ymir’s knees on her chest, she did not fall. She spun on her heels and threw Ymir toward another tree.

While she was turned away, Christa rushed in to drive her fist into the middle of Mikasa’s back. More green lightning burst off her fist, running up the length of her spine. Mikasa seized up, but neither shouted nor fell. She slowly turned around, the black fire weaving around both arms. Before she could lift them, Ymir caught her from behind, arms under hers and hands on the back of her head in a hold. The lightning caged the fire, but she struggled to turn Mikasa away as she fought in her arms.

“Hit her chest!” Ymir snarled through grit teeth. “We need to stun her long enough to get a seal on her!” She swore when Mikasa dragged her foot down the side of her shin. “Hurry the fuck up!”

Christa, Mina, and Sasha all hesitated. Through the comms, they heard Annie whisper, “God fucking dammit,” before she dashed in. She threw an uppercut that landed just below center on Mikasa’s chest. Mikasa gagged audibly, rising on her toes before going still in Ymir’s grasp. Ymir snarled again and increased the strength of the lightning. It de-morphed Mikasa, and Ymir let her go as Annie de-morphed as well.

Grabbing Mikasa’s wrists, Annie buried her face in her chest. She whispered; dark blue crystal built around her hands and Mikasa’s wrists. With a choked grunt, Mikasa went limp. Her eyes were half-closed and unfocused, but Annie kept her upright.

“An…nie?” Mikasa said once more.

“Be quiet a minute.” She whispered again, shifting her hands. The crystal shattered. It was then that Sasha realized both of Mikasa’s sleeves had burned away inside the suit. Both of her wrists now bore sigils, bright crimson slowly fading to black. Where the sigils had only been as wide as a ruler on her right wrist, they had grown three times as wide on both wrists. Above them, halting their motion, were Lichtenberg figures the same shade of blue as Annie’s.

“Are you going to hit me if I let you go?” Annie asked.

“N…no.” She remained still when Annie released her arms, but she could not straighten up. Annie wrapped her arms around her, still hiding her face in her chest.

“It’s Barghest,” Annie said weakly. Her breath hitched. “Barghest is the one who put a claim on you.” Her breath hitched again. “ _Dammit_.”

“Who’s Barghest?” Sasha asked.

“A high echelon demon,” Ymir replied. Her voice was low, visor turned toward Annie and Mikasa. “One of the highest.” She inhaled, hesitated, and then sighed. “I didn’t—I didn’t know he had a claim on her. I—”

“If the next words out of your mouth aren’t ‘I’m sorry I broke the weird seal she had on her, let me help you figure out a way to expel Barghest,’” Annie spat, “I’m going to rip your spine out bone by bone.”

Ymir went still. She looked at Christa. Christa looked back, and then turned to Sasha.

“Let’s talk somewhere that’s inside,” she said. “Ymir and I won’t try to run.”

Sasha looked at her for a long while. She glanced at Annie and Mikasa without turning her head. Annie was trembling; Mikasa had managed to close her fingers in the fabric of her soaked shirt. Mouth twisted, Sasha swallowed.

“Hanji?” she said. “Did you catch all of that?”

“ _I did_ ,” Hanji replied. “ _Someone hang onto the two new people and I’ll bring you back here_.”

Sasha nodded to nothing before taking hold of Christa and Ymir’s arms. The world shifted to leave them in the command room, dripping on the floor. Eren and Armin jumped at the sight of the green and purple suits, and Eren went as far as to raise his fists. They fell immediately when he spotted Mikasa; he and Armin went bone pale.

“Mikasa, oh my God!” Armin said, rushing over. He and Eren helped Annie lower Mikasa to the floor, both of them taking off their jackets. Eren lay his over her in a makeshift blanket while Armin put his under her head. Petra came over, frowning at her burned sleeves before checking her pulse and pupils. Mikasa winced when a penlight was aimed at her eyes, but Annie did not let her twist away.

Looking around showed Sasha that Hanji was standing at the computer console once again, frantically going through archive and internet searches. Once or twice, she saw the keyword of the search before Hanji opened a website or document.

“You’re not spelling it right,” Ymir said, voice filtering through the computer. She startled to hear it, sighed noisily, and said, “How do I get out of this thing? Annie did it too fast for me to hear.”

“Salute and say ‘lower shields,’” Hanji muttered. “And tell me how to spell it.”

They all de-morphed, and Ymir said, “B-A-R-G-H-E-ST.”

Hanji froze in the middle of a keystroke, the search box filling with the letter H. They lifted their hand and turned around.

“That reminds me,” they said. “Why did you call Annie ‘little lion’?”

“‘Cause that’s the nickname we all use for her,” Ymir replied.

“‘We’ being _who_?”

“Me and most of the other high echelons.” She shrugged. “I came up with it and it stuck.”

“So you were in good with the highly ranked demons?”

“Eh. Kinda. We don’t really get in good with each other, but I know them.”

“Ymir’s a lore-keeper,” Christa said quietly. “She knows about every high echelon demon in the world, and a lot of the middle ones, too.”

The muscles in Eren’s neck corded as he shot to his feet and roared, “Then she gets to park her ass on the floor and tell me who the fuck is trying to eat Mikasa’s soul!”

The sigils on Annie’s arms grew bright as she shouted back, “Annie already said it’s Barghest, you little shit! What’re you, deaf or just stupid?”

“Ymir, stop it!” Christa said, punching her arm. “They’re worried about her! You’d be scared if _I_ had a claim on me!”

“Wait, you really don’t?” Mina asked.

“Man, fuck all of you paranoid assholes,” Ymir grumbled. “I didn’t claim Historia’s soul when it was offered, so stop thinking she’s under my sway.”

Everyone turned to stare at her. After a few seconds, Annie said, “Who the hell is Historia?”

“Me,” said Christa. “My real name is Historia Reiss. ‘Christa Renz’ is a fake name I’ve been using.”

“ _Reiss_?” Armin said, voice breaking. “Reiss like Mayor Rhode Reiss?”

“That’d be the dick-bag who tried to toss her soul into my mouth,” Ymir said.

Hanji’s jaw dropped. “H-he’s involved with the demons?”

“Yeah. Made a deal about something, but I wasn’t really paying attention. I just fucked off with Historia to make sure she didn’t get tossed at someone else.”

Hanji stared. Going pale, they tried to sit in the chair in front of the console. They missed and crashed to the floor, the chair rolling away. “You’re kidding. It’s this high up in the city?” They put a hand on their brow, pinky finger knocking their glasses askew. “Then—this could mean that he’s been covering for disappearances. Offering other people as fees for demonic services. Enemies—other family members!”

“Hanji, breathe before you pass out!” Petra said, hurrying over to them.

“But we have to confront him about his involvement with the demons!” Hanji protested.

“Confront him how?” Ymir asked, sneering with a raised brow.

Hanji faltered. They opened their mouth, but had no words for a while longer. “With…the rangers. How else?”

“The rangers, huh?” She crossed her arms, pointing toward Mikasa. “The same rangers that have _that_ time-bomb on their side?”

“She wouldn’t be a time-bomb if you hadn’t fucked up the seal she had,” Annie hissed.

“It ain’t my fault that you fuckin’ morons let her do something dangerous like fight demons!” Ymir shot back. “What’s wrong with you that you’d let her come into contact with energy that could break a seal?”

Annie got to her feet, slowly moving toward Ymir. “What’s wrong with _me_? How’re you any better when _you_ ran away to keep a human safe? And it’s not like I could’ve stopped her when she was already fighting demons when we met! I wanted to keep her from getting corrupted and I was doing _fine_ at it until you fucked it all up!”

Her entire body bristled, sharp-edged crystal coming through her clothes at her shoulders, elbows, and knees. Fangs growing prominent, pupils becoming vertical slits, her sigils glowed and started to steam. There was a vicious, grating sound in her voice when she spoke again.

“This is all your fault!” she snarled. “Everything was fine until you two showed up!”

Ymir bared her fangs as well, lightning crackling around her. “I said that it ain’t my fault that you let her do dangerous shit, and it ain’t Historia’s fault either!”

“You came to steal the morphers! If you hadn’t done that, Mikasa wouldn’t be in danger like this! Tell me how to expel Barghest or let me kill you both so we can give the morphers to people who _aren’t_ pieces of shit!”

“ _Make me_!” Ymir bellowed, a thunder-crack in her voice.

A full-blown growl erupted from Annie’s throat. Her fingers were instantly capped by crystal claws, and she started to lift her foot to charge. An arm wrapped around her shoulders, holding tight enough that the crystal there pierced flesh.

“Just forget it,” Mikasa wheezed, leaning on Annie when her legs wobbled. “We don’t need the morphers. We’ll figure it out.”

The crystal along Annie’s body shattered as she turned around to brace Mikasa. “Dammit, lie back down! At least sit!”

Mikasa’s legs buckled, but Annie kept her from falling hard. On her knees, sweat on her brow, she looked at Ymir and said, “I don’t actually care what you do with the morphers, but you’re pissing me off. Either explain what’s happening or get out.”

Ymir glowered at her, huffing a sigh through her teeth that was thick with sparks. She glanced at Historia. “Well?”

“We should explain,” Historia replied.

Ymir sighed again, but sat down and crossed her legs. “Fine. You first.”

“Us first what?” Sasha asked.

“ _Historia_ first,” Ymir muttered, jabbing her thumb toward her. “Since it was her plan to steal the morphers.”

Annie’s eyes widened. “ _What_?”

“It’s all I could think of when Ymir told me there were people fighting the demons Reiss let into the world,” Historia said, lifting her hands to placate. “We needed a way to screw up his plans without letting him know who we are.” Her voice grew soft, fingers curling to her palms, as she said, “We really didn’t mean for this to happen. We just wanted the morphers. We didn’t even want to screw up _your_ plans.”

“Fine,” Mikasa mumbled. “Then you can just keep the stupid things. Now what’s happening to me? Who exactly is Barghest?”

“The hellhound of black fire,” Ymir said. “He goes through human containers like mad because his fire burns too hot for human heads to handle. He’s got a thing for claiming women to devour the souls of _other_ women in one-night stands and fake relationships. He has a worse thing for trying to sway female demons.”

She shrugged. “I’m amazed that you never showed any sign of who put a claim on you until now. When’d he catch you?”

“About ten years ago.”

She boggled. “Fuckin’ _what_ now? Seriously? Who put a seal on you that lasted that long?”

“Our dad gave her a shot of demon blood after she swallowed some of mine,” Eren said. “That’s the only thing we’ve ever done.”

Ymir looked him up and down. “She had some of _your_ blood…and Barghest went after _her_.” She sighed as she looked at Mikasa. “No wonder he kept his claim on you. If he gets your body, then he doesn’t have to try and hunt down this moron to get his blood. Barghest will be able to shift back and forth up here all he wants.”

“How do we get rid of him?” Annie asked through grit teeth.

“I’m gonna be honest,” Ymir said. “I don’t really know. I’ve never dealt with a human fighting a corruption like this, and I’ve never heard any stories about it.”

Annie went pale, her split lip even more stark. “There’s no way to do it?”

Ymir shrugged again, but there was deep displeasure in the twist of her mouth. “I’m not sure, little lion.”

“What if we kill Barghest?” Sasha asked.

“How’re we gonna get him here to do that?” Ymir asked in turn. “His easiest path out of the underworld is through her body. You wanna risk him getting her completely?”

“What about going to the underworld to find him?”

Ymir scowled at her. “You want us to go to the underworld to find Barghest. Do you have any idea who he hangs out with?”

“Well…no.”

“Barghest serves the Leviathan,” Annie said quietly. “If we went to the underworld to get to Barghest, we’d have to fight the Leviathan, too.” She shook her head and said nothing more.

“Then…there’s really nothing we can do?” Mina asked.

Ymir said nothing; she looked at the floor.

“There has to be a way to fix this!” Eren said. “You can’t expect us to sit here and let Mikasa get eaten by a demon!”

Silence filled the room when his voice faded. In the quiet, Mikasa put a hand on Annie’s white-knuckled fist. Historia saw and bit her lip as she thought.

“Ymir?” she said. “What if…what if we try to thin out the amount of higher echelon demons? Like we talked about?”

“The plan to piss off your old man?”

“Yeah,” said Historia. She glanced at Mikasa. “What if we make it so the only option they have to fight us is sending Barghest up outside of Mikasa? Maybe you _and_ Annie could put seals on Mikasa to keep her soul safe.”

“Why should any of us trust _you_?” Annie spat. “This is still your fault.”

Historia stared at her for only a few seconds before frowning darkly. “You know what? We’re sorry for this. Absolutely sorry! But if you’re going to be stupid and stubborn and not try to protect her, then it’ll be _your_ fault if Barghest eats her! Do you _want_ the death of someone you love on your shoulders?”

Annie’s head snapped up as a blush filled her cheeks. “What—what the hell did you say?”

“Do you really think we all don’t get why you’re so worried? For God’s sake, even _I_ figured it out the first time we met! Just let us help you!”

She opened her mouth to protest, brows dropping low. She stopped short when Mikasa squeezed her hand.

“Annie,” Mikasa whispered, “I don’t want to die. Please.”

Slowly, she turned to Mikasa. Words failed at the desperation in Mikasa’s eyes. From such a close distance, Sasha saw both of their faces in sharp detail. Her chest grew tight with pain, and so she looked at Ymir and Historia.

“We want your help,” she said. “So please help.” She swallowed hard. “I get the feeling you don’t want to fight Barghest in a body that can shift back and forth.”

“Yeah,” Ymir muttered. “That’s true.” She sighed through her nose. She scratched the back of her neck. A glance at Historia let her see her nod. With one last sigh, she said, “All right. We’ll go over a plan later. She seriously needs to recover. If someone else comes to fuck with the city, me and Historia will handle it.”

“Sasha and I as well,” Mina said. “You need training with the suits.”

“Fine. Can we all get sent home now?”

“Hanji, send me and Armin with Annie and Mikasa,” Eren said. “We need to help take care of her.”

“And me,” Sasha said. “I know what to cook when Mika’s sick.”

“All right,” Hanji murmured. “Ymir, Chris— _Historia_. I’ve got the communicators I was making for me and Petra, so I can let you know if activity comes up. Come here for a second.” They passed the communicators along, waiting until Ymir and Historia had put them on before tapping in a few sets of coordinates. Sasha and the others were left in the living room of Annie’s apartment, Ailuros jumping with fright in his place on the couch.

“Someone get me to a sink,” Mikasa choked, going green.

“Jesus—hang on,” Eren said. He hurried to put his shoulders under Mikasa’s arm while Annie helped her to her feet. They all but carried her to the kitchen; within seconds the sound of vomiting came back into the room. Ailuros meowed nervously, jumping off the couch to get to the kitchen. Sasha and Armin followed close behind.

“It’s like _tar_ ,” Eren said weakly.

Annie frowned and patted Mikasa’s back with caution. “Come on, cough it out. Don’t let it stick.”

Mikasa struggled to do so, feet slipping on the floor with her hacking attempts. Eren kept her from falling, biting his lip hard. They all waited through the mess of it, even Ailuros, and Eren and Armin helped her straighten up when it was over. Annie encased the vomit in crystal, breaking it into dust to rinse down the drain.

“Okay, who wants to go shopping for me to cook?” Sasha asked with a shaking voice. “I’ll make enough for everyone.”

“Eren and I will,” Armin said as he helped Mikasa lie down on the couch. “We need to clear our heads.”

“Give us a list,” Eren said. “We’ll be back quick.”

Sasha nodded, writing out a lengthy list on an index card from a box near the fridge. Eren and Armin headed out, Sasha locking the door behind them. She returned to the living room on dragging feet, but hesitated. She watched Annie take a blanket from the back of the couch, unfold it, and lay it gently over Mikasa. Very slowly, she sank down on one knee beside the couch and took the communicator from Mikasa’s ear. She set it aside and brushed away strands of hair from Mikasa’s brow. When Mikasa closed her eyes and turned toward her touch, she froze.

“Annie?” Sasha said.

“What?”

“Did she finally pass out?”

“Yeah.”

She nodded even though Annie had not looked at her. After a few seconds, she said, “Annie?”

“What?” Annie sighed.

“Was Historia right about why you’re this scared?”

Annie went silent and still. Eventually, in a voice almost inaudible, she replied, “Yeah.”

There was pity in Sasha’s smile and voice when she said, “Sucks, doesn’t it.”

“Yeah. Can you…not make a big deal out of it?”

“I promise I won’t,” Sasha whispered back. “We’ll just take care of her for now.”

Annie’s voice was raw when she said, “Thanks, Sasha. Really.”


	5. Drag the Devil Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are nothing but raw nerves after Barghest's attempt on Mikasa, and Sasha is desperate to find some method to help combat his corruption. This desperation leads her to Ymir for the knowledge kept in her lore-keeping, and she learns where her morpher draws its power.
> 
> With this new knowledge, Sasha heads out with the hope of a plan.
> 
> The hope does not stand when Annie tells her that Mikasa has gone missing, leaving behind many things and a note that only says, "Sorry."
> 
> And while a search is conducted, the demon connected to the red morpher waits patiently.

Eren and Armin made it back to the apartment as the storm died down. Despite how heavy the rain had been until then, almost none of the groceries had gotten wet. When they unlocked the door to come inside, Sasha stopped pacing in the living room. Ailuros, curled up next to Mikasa’s head on the pillow, lifted his head. He settled on recognizing them. Annie barely looked up, sitting on the floor next to the couch and looking miserable.

“Sasha, do you want me or Armin to help cook?” Eren asked as he put the bags in the kitchen. “You look like hell.”

“I know _neither_ of you can cook, so you go sit and stay out of my way,” Sasha said. “The last thing Mikasa needs is you screwing up her food and making it worse.”

He bristled, all but slamming a bag of rice on the counter. He turned on her as she came into the kitchen, jabbing a finger in her chest. “I don’t know if you figured this out or not, but you’re not the only one who’s worried about Mikasa! Just because I can’t cook doesn’t mean you can be an ass to me when I’m trying to help!”

All the fury she had been smothering by pacing surged back up in her chest and overflowed. She slapped his hand away and said, “Oh yeah, you’re _helping_ all right! You sure helped Mika ten years ago, so I’m sure you’ll be a _huge_ help now!”

He stared, mouth opening. For a few seconds, he had no words. Then, rage took him and he shouted, “You’re _blaming_ me? I didn’t fucking do that on purpose! You don’t think I’m _already_ sorry about what that did to her?” He took a breath to continue, but Armin grabbed his wrist.

“Eren, if you keep yelling, one of their neighbors is going to get angry,” he said. Pale, shaking, he said, “Come on. Sasha’s right about us cooking, so let’s just sit with Mikasa.”

He looked as though he would protest. His eyes fell to the floor; they grew wet.

Sasha felt her heart splinter. “Eren, I didn’t—”

“Fuck you,” he spat, and he turned on his heel and left. Armin glanced at Sasha, but said nothing before following Eren away. Sasha stared after them because she had no words. Eventually, she turned around to get to work. A quick rummaging through the bags told her Eren and Armin had bought a few boxes of macaroni and cheese for themselves. She put water on to boil for those before going through the cupboards in a search. When she could not find her target, she sighed.

“Fine, put the stupid thing in a stupid place so stupid people like me can’t find it,” she muttered.

“What’re you looking for?”

She was too exhausted to jump at Annie’s voice behind her. Instead, she sighed and said, “The rice cooker. It’s a really nice one and it’s the best thing to make rice.”

Annie waved her away, kneeling down to get into a low cupboard. She retrieved the rice cooker from far back in the cupboard, putting it on the counter with a sigh.

“Show me how to make this stuff,” she said.

“For Mikasa?”

“Yeah. So I can make it if she gets sick again.” She started to unpack the bags. “What do you need out of these?”

“I—here, hang on. I’ll get it in order first. Get some rice started, please.”

Annie let the bags be, going to the rice Eren had left behind. Watching Annie from the corner of her eye, Sasha gathered chicken, eggs, onions, and a number of bottles and containers from the cupboards. She swallowed her surprise when Annie did not fumble or do anything wrong in getting the rice cooker filled and started.

“Thanks,” she said. “Wash your hands, too. We’re touching meat.”

Annie hummed flatly as she washed her hands; she waited as Sasha did the same. Once their hands were dry, Sasha sighed heavily.

“Okay,” she said. “So. Uh. So you can cut up that chicken for now—just little one inch chunks. I’ll get the sauce bit going.” She brought over a large frying pan and two bottles. “First part of the sauce bit are these things called mirin and sake. Three parts mirin to one part sake, and boil ‘em.”

“No actual measuring things?”

“I don’t use measuring stuff most times. Ratios are fine.” She poured out the mirin and sake into the pan, placing it on a burner and turning it on high. “Then I’ll get the onions ready.”

“Wha—onions? Seriously? She was just barfing.”

“Hey, I was horrified, too. But she says this always makes her feel better.” She set into slicing a large onion into thin pieces, ignoring her eyes as they burned. Seeing the pan’s contents starting to boil, she nodded at it and said, “Next is one part sugar, two parts soy sauce, and a lot of that dashi stuff. That has to boil again.”

Annie, throwing a frown at the onions, nodded and washed her hands again. She added the rest to the pan, stepping to one side when Sasha moved to grab the boxes of macaroni and cheese. They said nothing for a long while, only Sasha giving Annie instructions on when to add the onions and chicken, and how to beat the eggs before adding them as well. From then, it was silence. They did not look at each other. Only when the macaroni and cheese was done did Sasha speak again.

“Guys?” she called. “Yours is ready, so come back.” She hurried to get bowls and spoons, setting them near the large pot. Eren did not look at her, nor did she look at him. Annie, however, caught Armin’s sleeve.

“Is she still asleep?” she asked.

“She is, but I think she’ll wake up to eat,” he replied. He smiled slightly. “Ailuros is giving her hair a bath.”

“See if you can get her sitting now,” Sasha said. “Hers is almost done.”

Eren grunted, spoon in his mouth, and headed back into the living room. Armin followed, and Sasha gathered three deep plates to split the rice, chicken, and eggs between. Annie took two plates when they had forks in them, following Sasha with cautious steps. Mikasa was sitting up on the couch, hiding her eyes from the light.

“Armin, if this is what your migraines are like, I’m so sorry I triggered one once,” she mumbled. “Jesus wept.”

“Annie helped make your favorite,” Sasha said. “It’ll probably help.”

Mikasa slowly turned her head, still hiding her eyes, until she saw Annie. Annie went to her, offering a plate. Mikasa took it, settling it safely in her lap, and chuckled weakly.

“Thanks,” she said. “Bet you were weirded out by the onions in here.”

“I don’t want you barfing again.”

“I’ll be okay,” Mikasa said, looking at her plate. “Thanks.” She started to eat, slow and careful with her shaking hands. Eren, sitting next to her, tried to catch her eye, but he had no words when she did not look up. Armin, on her other side, looked first at Sasha, and then at Annie. He shifted as though he would stand, but Annie turned away and went to the armchair to eat without looking at any of them.

Because there was nowhere else, Sasha sat on the floor and used the coffee table as her dining table. She, like everyone else the rest of the night, could no longer meet anyone’s eyes.

————

The sky was still overcast when the sun rose. Sasha sat on her bed, having been teleported home after cleaning up, and stared outside. Every inch of her ached from exhaustion and lingering tension, but she could not think of going to sleep. At one point, she went to her bag to retrieve her morpher. She sat on the floor to stare at it, rubbing her thumbs along its edges. It was cool after a night of staying in her bag.

“What good are you if you can’t tell me how to fight a demon that’s _in_ someone?” she muttered. She sighed and tossed the morpher back toward her bag. For a while longer, she frowned at it. Her eyes drifted to her bedside clock, seeing that it was a quarter past six. She thought very briefly about what she had to do on Thursdays before sighing and hiding her face in her knees. Part of her thought about texting Connie; she quashed the thought when she remembered the time.

Another thought came so suddenly that she swore aloud. She scrambled to grab her morpher and her keys, forgetting her shoes when she ran out of her apartment but remembering to lock the door. She sprinted up the stairs to get to Historia’s apartment, knocking rapid fire. She did not stop knocking until she heard a voice on the other side.

“All right already, I fuckin’ hear you!” Ymir said. “Wait a sec!”

Sasha held the morpher tight as the lock turned audibly. She grit her teeth as the door started to open. She went bright red when she saw Ymir standing in the doorway, clad in nothing but a pair of pajama pants. Her eyes somehow focused first on the clustered sigils over Ymir’s heart, fragments of golden marks that seemed like writing.

Before she could focus on Ymir’s breasts, Historia ran up from behind Ymir carrying a shirt. She leapt up and pulled the shirt over Ymir’s head with a startling amount of practiced grace. Ymir let out a strangled noise, arms pinned and hair springing up with a rush of static.

“For the _millionth_ time,” Historia said, kicking Ymir’s shin, “you need to wear pants _and_ a shirt when you answer the door!”

“It’s just that chick who hit me!” Ymir protested as she struggled to get her arms into her sleeves. “And a lot of people have tits, so calm _yours_!”

“Why did I ever show you the internet?” Historia grumbled. She pushed Ymir toward the inside of the apartment before waving Sasha in. As she closed and locked the door, she said, “Sorry. Ymir’s really bad at remembering to pass as a human if she’s in here with me.” She looked at Sasha’s face, shame filling her eyes when she saw her pallor.

“Um,” she said quietly. “Was—was Mikasa doing okay? After we all split up, I mean?”

Scowling, Sasha replied, “No.”

She shrank down. “Oh.”

Ymir caught the meekness in Historia’s voice and turned about. “If you came here to bitch her out, I’m throwing you out the window. _You_ asked us to help, y’know.”

“That was before I saw Mikasa throwing up _tar_ and Annie looking like she would cry,” Sasha said. “And also before I was a huge asshole to Eren when I shouldn’t have been.”

“Last one’s your fault, not mine. Why’re you here?”

She nearly snapped, but bit her lip and hit her own head. She looked Ymir in the eye and said, “I want you to tell me how I can help Mikasa not get corrupted.”

Ymir raised a brow.

“You’re a lore-keeper! I don’t know what that actually means, but you obviously know way more than anyone else!” She took a deep breath. “Just— _please_. There _has_ to be something I can do to help. I’m going to go insane if I can’t do anything.”

Ymir looked at Historia, brow still raised. When she nodded, Ymir sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. She said, “All right. C’mon, I’m doing something.” She beckoned them both along, and Sasha stopped short when they reached the living room. All the furniture had been moved to one side, leaving the floor open for two broad sheets of butcher paper. At the center of the sheets were the green and purple morphers, and from the morphers were born identical lines and patterns made in red and gold respectively.

“Got your morpher thingy on you?” Ymir asked.

“Yeah,” Sasha said slowly. “Um…what’s all this?”

“Me figuring out where the things actually go in terms of power.” She picked up the morphers and tossed them to Historia before moving the papers aside. She cut another piece of paper from a roll in one corner, sat down, and crooked her finger at Sasha. “C’mere.”

Hesitant, feet shuffling, Sasha went to her and sat down. She gave the morpher over when Ymir held out a hand. Though she meant to draw her hand back, Ymir caught her wrist and held her still.

“Need that,” Ymir said. She flipped the morpher over in her other hand, setting it at the center of the paper with the engraved side down. Without warning, she bit the tip of Sasha’s middle finger, pulling her hand over the morpher. As Sasha’s blood dripped onto the metal, Ymir spoke under her breath. Electricity crackled along the morpher; the blood sank into it. The electricity snapped across the paper, drawing lines and patterns in bright red.

“Huh,” said Ymir. “Another high echelon.”

Sasha pulled her hand back, hissing, “ _Ow_!”

“All these were made by a human?” Ymir asked.

“Fucking— _yes_ , all by a human,” Sasha muttered. She closed her other hand around her finger, squeezing hard. “What does it matter?”

“Because they managed to make something that makes a direct connection to high echelon demons without getting—” She paused. She thought. She looked around for Historia. When she did not find her, she loudly asked, “What was that word you used about how these things work for humans?”

“‘Feedback,’” Historia called from another room.

“Yeah, that one,” Ymir said. “You don’t get feedback that’d fuck you over. It’s pretty impressive for human tech-magic.” She picked the morpher up and looked at it closely. “Wonder if it’s got some more carvings or ward spells inside, since it’s pretty thick.”

Sasha stared, only blinking when Ymir gave her the morpher and picked up the paper. She turned when Historia touched her shoulder.

“Here,” she said. She offered two paper towels, one dry and one wet, and a band-aid. Sasha sighed as she took them.

“Did you have to _bite_ me?” she asked.

“I can’t make pretty knives like Annie, so yeah,” Ymir said. She traced the patterns without touching them, humming as she did. After a moment, she tapped her chin. To Historia, she said, “Where’s that really big book of maps you got out before?”

Historia pointed at the couch against the wall. Ymir turned, spotted the atlas sitting on one pillow, and got up to grab it. She brought it back, flipping through it even as she sat back down. She slowed down when she reached Europe, flipping through pages until she stopped at the northernmost countries.

“Ha ha,” she sang. “Knew those were his.”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Your morpher made a link to a demon who hung out in this area of the world,” Ymir said, gesturing at the map. “His name’s Reiner Braun. He’s a weird one because he let a lot of humans live so he could learn warding spells from them.” She shrugged. “The Leviathan was pissed about that, so he’s been stuck in the underworld for centuries now.”

“Warding—wait, could I tap into what he knows so _I_ could use warding spells?”

“You can’t _talk_ to him through this,” Ymir said, picking up the morpher and waggling it. “He’s not strong enough to cast his shadow into the human world like that.” She considered it for a time. “But…Iunno, you might get better results than the rest of us if you try to use warding spells in your suit.”

“What about seals? Like what Annie put on Mikasa’s wrists.”

Ymir shook her head. “Gotta have full demonic power. Even someone getting corrupted can’t make seals.”

“But could I make the corruption _slow down_ through warding spells? And then you or Annie could put new seals down before it gets bad?”

She thought, eyes drifting toward the ceiling. “That should work, yeah.”

Sasha grinned so massively that it made her head hurt, but she said, “Oh my God, I could kiss you right now.”

Ymir stared at her, looking deeply offended, before pointing at Historia and saying, “Fuck you, I only kiss her.”

Her grin fell from shock; Historia went bright red.

“Uh,” Sasha said quietly. “So…um. You two are…girlfriends?”

“What the hell is a girlfriend?” Ymir asked.

“Oh my God,” Historia sighed, face in her hands.

Ymir looked between them, baffled. “What is it? Why’s Historia blushing like that?”

“Because you put it like _that_ , Ymir,” Historia replied. She lowered her hands with another sigh, looked at Sasha, and said, “‘Girlfriend’ is the right word, yeah. Ymir’s…a little like a goofy dog in terms of affection.”

Without thinking, Sasha blurted, “Mikasa said Annie’s like a cat.”

Historia and Ymir stared at her. They looked at each other. After a moment, Ymir sighed and asked, “Did it really look like Annie would cry?”

Sasha could no longer add venom to her voice in her exhaustion, and so she quietly replied, “Yeah. For a second I thought she’d ask me to spend the night to help watch Mikasa.”

“Even though those two other guys were there?” Ymir asked.

“Yeah. I don’t think anyone but Mikasa got any sleep.”

“Sasha,” Historia said, “we really didn’t mean for that to happen. We just—”

“Wanted the morphers. I know.” She sighed heavily and looked at her bandaged finger. “Gimme a little while and I’ll be less pissed.” After a few seconds, her eyes drifted to the other sheets of paper. “Who do your morphers go to?”

“Me,” Ymir said with a smirk. “Annie’s probably goes to her.”

“Does…does Mikasa’s go to Barghest?”

“I don’t think so. Or has she always used black fire?”

“It’s red whenever I’ve seen it.”

Ymir hummed quietly as she thought. “She’d have to let me do this with her morpher. There’s at least seven high echelon demons who use fire.” Her head tilted as she thought further, but she waved a hand. “Either way, she’d have to let me check.”

“I don’t think she’s going to be up for anything for a few days,” Sasha said. She rubbed her eyes. “I’m probably going to check on everyone this afternoon to make sure they’re eating all right.”

“We could go with you and check Mikasa’s morpher while we’re there,” Historia said.

“You know that Annie’s still super pissed at you two, right?”

“But—”

“Give her a while, okay?” Sasha said. “Just until Mikasa starts getting better.” Because Historia looked crestfallen, she said, “Saturday. Wait until then and I’ll go over there with you.”

“All right,” she said quietly.

Sasha rubbed her eyes again, harder than before. “I need to sleep before I pass out in your living room. I’ll come by on Saturday, okay?”

“All right,” Historia said again.

Sasha nodded and stood up. She headed for the door, Ymir following, and went outside. Though she meant to go to the stairs, she heard Ymir speak.

“What the fuck, _Annie_?” she said.

Sasha spun to stare at her and spun again when Ymir pointed. Annie was coming down the street at a dead sprint, still dressed in her sleeping clothes with her hair loose. Sasha bolted down the stairs, Ymir close behind her, and ran to meet Annie on the sidewalk.

“M-Mika-sa,” Annie panted.

Sasha felt her skin go cold. “Oh God, what happened?”

Annie’s eyes went wide with horror. Coughing from her sprint, she said, “She—sh— _kff_ —she’s not— _here_?”

“ _What_? How could she be here? Did Hanji ‘port her to my place?”

Looking even more horrified, Annie dug in the pocket of her hoodie. She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper, a communicator, Mikasa’s cell phone, her scarf, and the red morpher. While Sasha took the cell phone, utterly pale, Ymir took the piece of paper. She opened it; her mouth twisted.

“‘Sorry,’” she said. “That’s all it says.”

“Did Barghest get control of her?” Saha asked.

“I put seals on her!” Annie snarled. “He’s not getting her again!”

“Then she left on her—” Sasha’s heart felt as though it had vanished from her chest when she looked at the note in Ymir’s hand. “Oh no. Oh no, no, _fuck no_.” She grabbed Annie’s shoulders and held tight. “Did Mikasa take anything? Her keys or her purse? _Anything_ at all?”

Annie stared at her. “What?”

“She left all of this important stuff that we could’ve used to _find_ her.” She swallowed hard and shook Annie gently. “Did she take _anything_ with her that makes you think she’ll come _back_?”

“Her—keys and shoes were gone,” Annie said, sounding as confused as she looked. “I didn’t look for anything else.” She looked at the scarf in her hands before looking at Sasha nervously. “Why?”

“Oh my God, we need to find her,” Sasha said. She took a deep breath, but it did nothing for her rising panic. She gripped her shirt over her heart and looked down. “Oh fuck, Mika, please don’t do this, please don’t be stupid.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Annie asked.

She looked up. She swallowed again. “Sometimes when humans get hit with emotionally traumatizing events or they think there’s no hope in their life, they start thinking really terrible things. Things like ‘killing myself is easier than dealing with this.’ And Mikasa just made it really hard for us to find her and stop her from acting on those thoughts.”

Annie went bone pale. Sasha pushed Mikasa’s phone into her hands.

“We’ll split up,” Sasha said, marveling at the steadiness of her voice despite the tremor in her spine. “If I find her, I’ll text her phone and tell everyone over the communicators. Tell Eren and Armin what’s going on so they can hit the streets.”

Annie swallowed, nodded, and wrapped the scarf around her neck. Once she had put everything else back in her pocket, she turned and ran off. Sasha turned to look at Ymir.

“You and Historia get on the communicators to tell Mina and Hanji that Mikasa’s missing,” she said. “Then help us try to find her.”

Ymir did not bother replying, only rushing back upstairs. Sasha went back to her apartment, hurrying through getting dressed. She grabbed her morpher, keys, and phone, sent a text to Connie saying to let her know if he saw Mikasa, and ran back outside. She jumped onto her bike and rode off into the city with ice in her gut.

————

Through what they all hoped was either bad luck or bad timing, there was no sign of Mikasa through Thursday. Connie joined the search properly that night, forcing Sasha to get some sleep while he and Marco Bodt, Mina’s boyfriend, drove around the edges of the city to check for Mikasa. By Friday morning, Petra had taken over comms watch, also forcing Hanji to sleep. Armin and Eren took no such rest, sending update texts to Sasha every hour on the hour for her to relay to the others. Historia spent the entire day on campus with Mina, both of them doing their best to search through every building. Ymir and Annie kept to the rooftops and other places with long drops.

Sasha rode until she thought her thighs would cramp from strain, nearly getting into two accidents when she tried to cross ahead of a turning car. With her morpher tucked securely in her coat pocket, she kept riding after sunset. At ten o’clock, she stopped to eat and let her legs recover slightly. Chewing through a cheap burger, she pushed her bike along and checked her phone.

_Still nothing,_ said Eren’s text. _I called our parents and they haven’t seen or heard her._

_Jean finally answered my call,_ said Armin’s. _He hasn’t seen her._

_nothing 4 me or Marco,_ said Connie’s. _sorry babe, we’re still looking! :(_

“ _Fuck_ ,” Sasha whispered. She threw her trash away, got onto her bike, and pedaled off. As she rode, she brought one hand up to activate her communicator.

“The boys reported in,” she said. “Still no sign. How’s everyone doing?”

“ _I just got kicked out of a dorm,_ ” Historia sighed. “ _No sign of her anywhere._ ”

“ _And no one at the athletic center has seen her,_ ” Mina said. “ _Jesus. Historia, I’ll get my car over near the cafeteria if you want to meet me._ ”

“ _I’ll be there in two minutes. Ymir? How’re you and Annie doing?_ ”

“ _Fine aside from not fuckin’ finding her,_ ” Ymir replied. “ _Why do you assholes live in a **city**? Why couldn’t you live in a normal little village? It’d be easier to track her down._ ”

“ _I don’t think anyone planned on dealing with being corrupted,_ ” Annie muttered. “ _We’re going to find her._ ”

“We will,” Sasha said. “Annie, where are you and Ymir right now?”

A loud and needy meow prefaced Annie’s reply of, “ _I came back to our apartment to give Ailuros food. I was hoping **she’d** come back to do that._ ”

“ _Downtown at all those business buildings,_ ” said Ymir.

“Okay,” Sasha said. She looked around, sighing with exhaustion. “Um…I’m gonna hit the park, since I’m near there.”

“ _Mina and I will head toward her college and check around there,_ ” said Historia.

“Okay. Then we’ll get check in again at eleven.” She took her hand away after hearing the affirmative replies, heading up the sidewalk toward the park. The traffic had thinned out significantly around the park. With the rain that had hit midday, no one was keen to spend Friday night outside in the gloom.

Sasha rode along the pathways slowly, sometimes standing on the pedals to get a higher vantage point. It hurt to sit back down after riding so long, but she kept at it all the same. A few loops were made around the duck pond to let her stare at the black water, and then she veered off toward the running path near the river.

Benches were scattered on the path for people needing a break or whoever wanted to watch the river. It was high and fast from the rainfall; riding near it made Sasha’s chest tighten. She rode with the river’s flow, looking at the foam mixed with the water. The wind kicked up as the air cooled, making her hair and the hood of her coat flutter.

“Don’t be in there,” she whispered. “Please don’t be in there. Don’t let me find you downstream in there.” She whimpered when her left thigh finally cramped up, hurrying to get off before she fell. Bracing herself on her bike, Sasha did her best to massage the cramp away. As she did, she looked ahead. Lamp posts lit the way, but she did not see anyone coming up the path. She sighed and started to concentrate on her leg.

She caught movement in the corner of her eye. She looked up to focus. Someone was sitting on a bench several yards on, wearing a dark gray jacket with the hood half pulled up. Another gust of wind off the river pulled the hood back completely, letting the lamp posts’ light fall on Mikasa’s face. Mikasa only had morose eyes for the river.

Sasha froze. She flailed for a moment, hand going up toward her communicator before going into her pocket for her phone. She started to type a text to send to Annie, but stopped. She looked at Mikasa. Swallowing, she deleted the text and called Mikasa’s phone instead. She only had to wait a few seconds before Annie answered.

“I found her,” she said quickly. “I think she’s okay.”

“ _Where is she?_ ”

“The park. The running path by the river.” She swallowed again. “Annie, I’m going to go sit with her and make sure she doesn’t do anything. If you want to get here before anyone else…I won’t update anyone yet.”

There was a long pause before Annie replied, “ _Thank you. I’ll be there in five minutes, so keep her safe, okay?_ ”

“I will, don’t worry.” She ended the call and cautiously made her way to Mikasa on foot. Mikasa did not look up at the sound of Sasha’s feet on the wet gravel, or even when Sasha put the bike’s kickstand down. Sasha sat down on her left side slowly, looking at her face.

“Mikasa?” she said.

Mikasa blinked and looked at her without turning her head. She looked back to the river. “Hi Sasha.”

“Have…you been here for the last two days?”

“I got here around sunset. I’ve been around the city a few times.”

“We’ve been looking for you.”

“I know. Eren nearly ran into me this morning at the freeway overpass.”

Sasha opened her mouth. She closed it because she had never seen the misery that rose in Mikasa’s face. She watched Mikasa twist her fingers together and tug at her sleeves.

“Do you know what really scares me?” Mikasa whispered.

“What?” Sasha asked, putting a hand on her knee.

“Me dying because I fucked up and Barghest took my body,” she said. She swallowed. “Because then he’d kill all of _you_. Eren and Armin and you and Hanji and An—” She choked. She coughed and started to cry, hands on her brow. “And I thought it’d be safer if I just—got it over with now. I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to do it for two days, but—Sasha, I _can’t_! I can’t fucking do it! I don’t want to die!”

There had never been a moment where Sasha wished harder for words. All she could do was move closer and put an arm around Mikasa’s shoulders. It seemed to do nothing; Mikasa sobbed all the same. She did not know how long it was before Mikasa managed to speak again, but she listened closely.

“I’m so scared it’s him doing everything,” Mikasa said. She shook her head, breath hitching. “I want to be the one who likes Annie. I don’t want it to be him trying to trick her.” Her breath hitched again, breaking in a sob. “ _I_ like her! I don’t want him ruining that!”

Sasha managed to hear sprinting footsteps on the path in time to look up. She pulled her arm away as Annie ran around the bench, pushed Mikasa upright, and sat in her lap, knees beside her hips and arms around her shoulders. She panted from running and held on with shaking arms. Mikasa found her face buried in her own scarf, wrapped as it was around Annie’s neck.

“Annie?” Mikasa asked.

“You’re— _mine_ ,” Annie said. “N-not his. You don’t—get to d-die.”

“Have you been running around to find me?” Mikasa asked, voice breaking.

“Yes, you idiot.” She sighed after she caught her breath, tightening her hold. “Don’t scare me like this again, all right? I’m not letting him take you.”

For a few seconds, Mikasa was completely still. She wrapped her arms around Annie, nodded, and hid her face in her scarf. Annie glanced at Sasha; Sasha smiled back and stood up. Moving to a polite distance, she activated her communicator.

“Annie and I found Mikasa,” she said, letting relief into her voice. “She’s okay.”

“ _Are you serious?_ ” Mina asked. “ _Holy shit, where are you?_ ”

“The park,” Sasha said, nearly laughing. “Oh—Christ, she’s okay.”

“ _Is there any indication that she needs medical attention?_ ” Petra asked.

“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure she needs to eat and sleep.”

“ _Oh!_ ” Ymir said. “ _Hey, I have an idea! Hanji or Petra, send all of us to me and Historia’s place!_ ”

“ _Why there specifically?_ ” Hanji asked.

“ _Because then I can see who’s linked to her morpher and we can have takeout at the same time!_ ”

Sasha bit her tongue to stop her snicker, hearing Historia sigh.

“That’s fine, Hanji,” Annie said. “I’ve got Mikasa.”

“Put me outside at ground level, please,” Sasha said, hurrying to her bike. “I’ll call everyone else on the way up.”

“ _Historia and I are on foot, so we’re set to go,_ ” Mina said. “ _Thank God you went that way, Sasha._ ”

“ _All right,_ ” Hanji said with a smile in their voice. “ _Ymir, Historia, and Mina, you in three, two, one. Annie, you and Mikasa in three, two, one. Sasha, you in three, two, one._ ”

The world tilted and left her near the apartments’ bike racks. She hurried through locking up her bike, grabbing her phone the second she could to call Eren.

“We found her!” she said when he picked up. “Safe and sound!”

The bellow of triumphant glee he let out was deafening.

“We’re back at Historia’s apartment, three-oh-nine,” she said. “I think we’re going to keep her here tonight, so grab Armin and come over.”

He let out another bellow before ending the call. As she started up the stairs, she called Connie’s phone.

“ _Hey!_ ” he said when he answered. “ _Any luck?_ ”

“We found her,” she said, grinning. “She’s okay.”

“ _Oh fuck **yeah**! Dude, Marco, they found her!_ ”

Sasha heard the loudest sigh of relief on the other line before Marco said, “ _Oh my God in heaven, blessed is his name._ ”

“We’re all at Historia’s apartment, three-oh-nine,” she said, reaching the third floor. “Eren and Armin should be on their way.”

“ _Sasha, give us about thirty minutes,_ ” Marco said. “ _We got all the way to the north side and there’s some traffic._ ”

“We’ll be here,” she said. “Thank you guys _so_ much for helping.”

“ _No problem,_ ” Connie replied. “ _We’ll see you in a bit, Sasha. Give Mika a hug for me before we get there!_ ”

“I will,” she chuckled. “See you in a bit.” She hung up as she reached Historia’s door, knocking politely. Historia answered, immediately giving her a bear hug.

“Oh my God, I’m so glad you found her,” she said against Sasha’s chest. “Mina and I were starting to panic.”

“Me too,” Sasha admitted, hugging back.

Historia coughed out a laugh as she let go. “Annie’s not getting out of her lap.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think she would,” Sasha giggled. She followed Historia inside, smiling when she saw Mikasa on the couch and Annie resolutely wrapped around her. Mikasa looked up and let go of Annie’s hoodie to wave slightly.

“Ymir and Mina already went to get pizzas,” Historia said. “They shouldn’t take too long.” She hesitated, but said, “Annie? Mikasa? Would you like anything to drink before they get back?”

“Water, please,” Mikasa said.

Historia nodded and went off to the kitchen. Sasha went to sit next to them, struggling not to giggle because Annie did not lift her head.

“Annie?” Mikasa said.

“What?”

“Um…how much did you hear? When I was talking to Sasha, I mean.”

“That you’re the one who likes me and you don’t want Barghest to ruin that. Is there something else I need to hear?”

Mikasa went still. She tightened her grip on Annie’s hoodie and whispered, “I was too scared to kill myself.”

“Good,” Annie said. “You’re not allowed to do that.” She nuzzled against Mikasa’s shoulder. “You’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” Mikasa said. She looked up when Historia returned with her arms full of water bottles. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Historia replied, handing over one bottle. She gave one to Sasha and sat down on Mikasa’s other side holding the last two bottles. She looked at them for a time before touching Annie’s elbow. “I brought one for you. You look exhausted.”

Annie lifted her head just enough to look at Historia. She looked at the water bottle offered to her, blinked slowly, and took the bottle. “Thanks.”

Historia blushed purely from surprise before smiling and nodding. They sat by in silence for a long while, taking drinks and sips every so often. When someone knocked on the door, Historia jumped to her feet and hurried to answer it. She returned with Ymir and Mina, who were carrying four large pizzas each.

“Still doing okay?” Mina asked.

“I think Annie’s holding her tight enough to tell what her heart rate is,” Sasha giggled.

Mikasa smiled slightly. “That seems right.”

“Annie, do you still have her morpher on you?” Ymir asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“I really wanna see who it made a connection to.” She pushed the coffee table to one side with her foot, set down her pizzas, and went to cut a long piece of butcher paper. When she turned around, she found Annie scowling at her. “Come on, if it was Barghest that it connected to, she’d be dead already. Sasha’s morpher is connected to Reiner, so I wanna see who’s on the other side of Mikasa’s.”

Annie continued to scowl, upper lip rising to bare a fang.

“Ymir, you can do it with mine to show it’s safe,” Mina said. She took her morpher from her pocket after setting down her pizzas, holding it out. She yelped when Ymir pulled her down to the floor with the paper. Annie held Mikasa tighter, rumbling faintly as she watched Ymir bite Mina’s finger and drip blood on the morpher. Because Mina’s reaction to the patterns that appeared on the paper was only curiosity, Annie slowly relaxed.

“Sasha gets Reiner, Mina gets Bertholdt,” Ymir said, tapping her chin. “ _Interesting_.”

“Bertholdt?” Historia asked.

“Bertholdt Fubar,” Ymir replied. “He’s from the same area as Reiner. No talent for magic or anything, but he’s a _huge_ mountain giant when he’s shifted. Not really happy with the Leviathan for imprisoning Reiner.” She hummed quietly. “I wonder if word got out about the morphers…if some of us started _looking_ to make the connection.”

“It would’ve had to come through whoever’s connected to mine,” Mikasa said. “I was the first person to morph.

Annie began to rumble again. She cut herself off with a hard sigh and said, “Fine. Shirt off.”

Mikasa blinked. “What?”

“I’m going to put a seal along your spine. Shirt off.” She let Mikasa go, moving off of the couch as Ymir got another piece of paper. Mikasa stared at the wall for a moment before getting off the couch and pulling her shirt off. Flatly ignoring everyone else, Annie set her hands along the length of Mikasa’s spine and spoke quietly. Mikasa flinched as blue crystal grew on her skin, shuddering when Annie spoke again to shatter it. Blue sigils covered her back when the crystal vanished, and she pulled her shirt back on gingerly.

“All right,” Ymir said, grinning and crooking a finger at Annie. “Let’s see who’s there.” She took the morpher when it was offered, setting it on the paper. She bit Mikasa’s finger, let her blood fall on the morpher, and murmured. Electricity crackled on the morpher and the blood sank into it, but no patterns were painted on the paper. Ymir boggled.

“What the fuck?” she said. “But—that’s not—” She reached for the morpher. She jerked away with a gasp when the paper burst into flames. All at once, the power in the apartment went out; for the briefest instant they heard shouts from others in the building. The room went utterly silent as the temperature plummeted. The fire died, but the morpher began to glow deep, dark red and, as though echoing up through a chasm, a voice came from it.

_Well…well…well. The western lore-keeper._

“Oh, I fucked up _so bad_ ,” Ymir whispered.

The voice chuckled. The shadows in the room moved as heat came from the morpher. In the dim light, Sasha could see the faintest outline of something circling around them, sinuous and massive. She could not so much as breathe. Mikasa’s hair was ruffled by hot wind.

_So this is the woman who Barghest has a claim on. I was wondering if you’d find a way to do this before he made another move._ The voice chuckled again as the afterimage of golden eyes with vertical pupils and no sclera appeared before Mikasa.

Annie grabbed the back of Mikasa’s shirt, but could not pull her away. Like Ymir, she had gone ashen, and she now sat shaking.

_There’s no need for that, little lion,_ the voice purred. _I have no need of her soul or her body._ It hummed laughter as something pushed on Mikasa’s back, forcing her up onto her knees and closer to the eyes. _I will be happy to let her tap into **my** power._

“In exchange for what?” Annie spat.

_Oh…what I **always** exchange on._

Mikasa whimpered when something intangible caressed her face; she could not tell if it was a finger or a claw.

_You may use my power…as long as you kill Barghest and the Leviathan. Does this seem fair?_

“I’m n-not that eager to b-barter with the devil,” Mikasa said.

The voice’s laughter dipped into a low, long rumble. _The devil? That silly little notion? No, I am not the devil. I am simply…very old. And I am weary of the Leviathan acting like a king in **my** home._

Mikasa stopped breathing as her head was tilted back and warm air washed over her face.

_Now…you of many titles…you the lion’s devotion, you the wolf’s claim, **you** , oh humanity’s strongest…say you will be the dragon’s scion and slay your claimant and and the Leviathan. Do this and I will keep these wasteful deals from happening again._

“Deals?” Annie choked out.

_The deal that opened such a rift between our worlds,_ the voice said. _After all…even I don’t have the power to bring the dead back to the human world. The Leviathan is playing his human like a fool._

Mikasa felt her hair being pushed back; something dug into her skin. The golden eyes drew even closer.

_Do this,_ the voice murmured, _and you will be free._

“H-how do I know you’re n-not lying to me?” Mikasa asked.

_What reason do I have to lie? This is all for mutual benefit. If you fear for the others, I will let them be free as well. All I want is the Leviathan’s domain in the underworld returned to my control._

Again, the voice chuckled; the sound echoed in chasm between them. _I do not go back on my word. Use my power to kill them and you will be free._

Mikasa looked at Annie. When Annie nodded, she looked at the eyes. “A-all right. We’ll kill them.”

_**Very** good,_ said the voice, and Mikasa was released. _Then you may use as much of my power as you see fit._ The glow in the morpher began to fade.

“Wait!” Mikasa said. “Did you tell other demons about our morphers?”

_Of course I did. I sent out the eastern lore-keeper to spread the word. Humans aren’t the only creatures I tempt._ The voice chuckled one last time. _Good luck to you, Mikasa Ackerman._

The glow faded completely and the lights flickered back on. No one moved for a long time. Ymir slowly lay facedown on the floor.

“Holy shit, I am so sorry,” she said, voice shaking. “Holy _shit_ , I didn’t know that’d happen.” She whined faintly. “Annie, please don’t kill me.”

“Who did I just make a deal with?” Mikasa asked. She gladly let Annie get back into her lap, holding tight.

“Um,” said Annie, shaking visibly. “The—um—the oldest demon in the underworld. In existence.”

“Is that a good or a bad thing?” Mina asked in a breaking whisper.

“Well,” Ymir said, lifting a hand to gesture while keeping her head down, “she, um, she doesn’t lie, which is really weird, but… _fucking hell_ , I’ve never seen her shadow in the human world. I’ve never seen a shadow that could _touch_ someone.”

“That was a _woman_?” Sasha asked. “It told Mikasa to be the dragon’s scion.”

“That’s because she _is_ a dragon,” Ymir said. “She’s never taken a human body in all the lore I know.”

“But she made a deal with Mikasa,” Historia said as she helped Ymir sit up. “And you said she doesn’t lie.”

“She doesn’t,” Annie said. She swallowed hard. “We should be okay.”

“You’re not gonna kill me?” Ymir asked.

Annie shook her head. “She only cares about getting Leviathan out of the way, not about Mikasa’s soul. It’s fine.”

Ymir relaxed slightly. She jumped when Mikasa’s stomach growled audibly.

“Did you not eat anything at all for the last two days?” Sasha asked.

“No,” Mikasa admitted quietly.

“Food now,” Annie said. “We’ll make a plan later.”

There was no argument made to that as they moved toward the pizzas. Mikasa, though, could not move because Annie did not get out of her lap.

“Annie?” Mina said. “You need to get up to let Mikasa get food.”

“One of you can bring a box _to_ us,” Annie replied.

Sasha snorted with laughter so hard it hurt her nose. It broke the lingering tension, making Ymir, Historia, and Mina burst out laughing. When Mikasa started to giggle, Sasha brought over a box for her. Annie smiled at her, and Sasha smiled back.


	6. Weapons of Demon Slayers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Information passes freely between lore-keepers, even in dreams, and it is thanks to this that Sasha's soul is summoned to the underworld the night they hear the Dragon's voice. It is thanks to the eastern lore-keeper's guidance that she is brought to Reiner Braun to cull some of his knowledge.
> 
> When the morning comes and Sasha's soul returns, facts are laid out: how they can acquire weaponry, why Ymir and Historia went on the run together, and what nature the Leviathan has.
> 
> Ten days on, Sasha begins to work on the weapons for herself, Mina, and Historia with Mikasa's help in testing. Because of the clarity in Mikasa's voice, Sasha agrees to cover up what happens during those tests.

They had started to settle at half past midnight, full of food and exhaustion. Annie had fallen asleep first, slumped against Mikasa and twitching from overexertion. Though Mikasa had tried to move to let her lie down, Annie kept hold of her hand in her sleep. Mikasa went still before looking at the others. Historia gestured for her to wait before hurrying away. She returned with an oversized pillow and a quilt, waiting until Mikasa had laid down before pulling the quilt over her and Annie.

“We’ll clean up,” Historia whispered. “You two sleep.”

Mikasa smiled, murmured, “Thanks,” and settled with Annie’s head under her chin.

All things told, Sasha was more than happy to sleep in a pile on the floor of the apartment if it meant Mikasa and Annie got the couch. It certainly wasn’t uncomfortable, as Historia had an air mattress, blankets, and quilts to spare for all of them. With Connie in her arms as the little spoon in their nest of blankets on the mattress, Sasha relaxed. She listened to Mina and Marco breathing behind her, heard Eren shifting in his sleep before Armin, also asleep, mumbled something comforting. The way Ymir picked Historia up and carried her off to keep her from fussing any further made her grin sleepily.

Only once did Mikasa stir, and it was paired with Annie making small, distressed sounds. She lifted her head slightly, bundled Annie closer, and pulled the quilt over their heads. Sasha let herself relax completely once they had both gone back to sleep, closing her eyes.

At first, she did not realize she had gone to sleep. It felt too easy, too soft. She kept still in the deep warmth, the aches in her body slipping away. Her eyes opened without meaning to, and Sasha stared because she was sitting cradled in the roots of a dark oak tree. Before her was a few yards of red sandy earth that dropped away into an endless black chasm. She stayed still as hot wind rose out of the chasm and warmed her bare feet.

“Hello?” she said aloud. She looked around but saw no one. “Is anyone here?”

The echoing sound of vast winds in the chasm made her freeze. Swallowing slowly, she stood up. Rising on her toes on the highest root, hand on the tree for balance, did not let her see much more than while seated. She stepped down to the ground, but moved no further. Again she heard the sound of wings, but it had grown louder and sharper. Her feet grew cold. She went to put her hand in her jacket pocket for her morpher, but she was not wearing it.

“Great,” Sasha muttered. She swallowed again and turned to face the chasm properly, shoulders squared. The wings were even closer on their next sounding; the hot wind returned. Sasha grit her teeth, but could not hold back her panicked whimper when the wings brought with them a great black dragon. Serpentine and covered in dark silver sigils that looked like scarring from burns, the dragon landed gently on its massive four-clawed feet. It caped its gold wings and looked at Sasha with eyes the same color.

“U-um,” Sasha whispered.

The dragon tilted its head.

“Y-you’re n-not the oldest d-demon, are y-you?” Sasha asked. “I’m n-not trying to be r-rude or anything, b-but—”

A low chuckle rumbled out of the dragon’s mouth. Silver lightning rolled along its sigils, brightest at the dragon’s chest. As the lightning contracted, so too did the dragon’s body. It grew smaller, its two back feet taking on human shape. A flare of light made Sasha close her eyes.

When she opened them, she saw a very tall woman standing before her in loose, light clothing of a red shirt and black trousers. Her skin was as dark as Ymir’s, but her sigils covered her hands as well as her arms, silver clustered from palm to fingertips. The sigils wound up over her chest under her shirt, coiling around her neck before stopping over her left eye.

“I am the eastern lore-keeper,” the woman said. “I’m here on the Dragon’s orders.”

Sasha stared. She looked around. After a moment, she quietly said, “I’m not Mikasa.”

The woman chuckled, showing sharp teeth. “I’m aware. I wasn’t sent here for her. I’m here to guide _you_ , Sasha Braus.”

Her brows shot up. “How do you know my name?”

“Ymir told me, and she told me your link goes to Reiner Braun. I’ve been ordered to take you to him.”

Her mouth opened. She hurried over and asked, “Can he teach me warding spells?” She went silent when the woman put a finger over her mouth.

“I can keep you safe,” the woman said, “but we’re in territory the Leviathan has claimed. Do your best to keep quiet.”

Sasha nodded, and she took the woman’s arm when it was offered. She followed the woman to the edge of the chasm, hesitating there. “Um.”

“Yes?”

“Do you have a name I can use?”

She smiled and, stepping off the edge, said, “Kailas Arav.” Sasha put a hand over her mouth to hold down a loud gasp as lightning grew under Kailas’s feet, holding her in the air. Chuckling, Kailas offered her free hand. Sasha took it and cautiously stepped off the cliff. Lightning grew under her feet, holding her up while feeling of warm sand. She stared at her feet, flexing her toes to see sparks coil between them.

“That’s _cool_ ,” she said.

“It’s a very old trick,” Kailas said with fondness in her voice, “that a lovely storm spirit taught me.” She gestured down, taking a step as though descending on stairs. Sasha followed her lead, walking down through the air. As the light of the red sky began to fade, Kailas lifted one hand and filled it with silver fire.

“You’re a lot nicer than I thought you’d be,” Sasha said.

“Based on Ymir?”

“Um. Yeah.”

She chuckled again. “No two demons are identical, but I’ve taken much more time to interact with other creatures for pleasant reasons.”

“Like storm spirits?”

“Precisely. There’s quite a lot of fun to be had in life if you don’t antagonize _everyone_.” She turned them slightly to keep close to the wall, putting herself between Sasha and the looming void. For a while, she said nothing in favor of staring down and away. Sasha managed to catch sight of her eyes at one point, seeing how her pupils were wide and vertical. It made a chill go up her spine, but she still held tight to Kailas’s arm.

“You’ll be fine,” Kailas said mildly. “Just stay calm and quiet like you have been.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath when Kailas stopped them at a crack in the wall, following her into a narrow passage of stone stairs. “Are we doing this to avoid other demons?”

“We are. No one likes being in close quarters like this, which is why Reiner is imprisoned here.”

“Oh.” She looked up, seeing how Kailas was walking with her head tilted away from the low stone ceiling. “Um. Thanks for guiding me.”

“Not a problem. I’m glad to help if it’ll get rid of the Leviathan.” Her voice dropped; the rumble in her words was bone-rattling when she added, “ _And_ Barghest.” She stopped because Sasha froze. She turned around to see how Sasha had gone stiff with fright, eyes wide and face pale. Her brows rose.

“S-sorry,” Sasha whispered, unable to raise her voice further. “It j-just spooked me.”

Kailas smirked. “I reserve my ire for those who threaten what’s mine. You’re perfectly safe with me.”

A few seconds more passed before Sasha could move her feet, and she used them to think. When she could walk, she asked, “Did Barghest try to take something of yours? Or—someone? Ymir said that he…um…’likes’ women.”

Kailas looked at her. She brought her hand closer, flexing her fingers. The image of a woman with long braided hair appeared in the fire, and the beauty of her bright smile took the lingering fear from Sasha’s body.

“That’s the storm spirit, isn’t it,” she said.

“It is,” Kailas replied, smiling as she watched the image of the woman laugh. “Hova Sirvat, a green dragon of mountain storms.”

“He didn’t get her, did he?”

“No. He learned why you should never go up against two dragons, much less a demon who’s consumed a shifter.”

“A what?”

“We call humans who can give us the ability to shift back and forth without spells ‘shifters.’ I devoured one several thousand years ago.”

Her throat closed up. Quiet, meek, she said, “Oh.”

“You should take comfort in that,” Kailas said, voice and smile pleasant. “It means I have no reason to eat this century’s shifter.” Her smile vanished as she made them stop suddenly. She extinguished the fire to put her hand over Sasha’s mouth. Sasha held her breath and closed her eyes in the dark. She heard nothing, but they remained still for a full three minutes.

“What’s wrong?” Sasha whispered when Kailas lifted her hand.

“A few harpies flew back into the underworld near here. Didn’t want them to notice anything in the walls.” She took hold of more fire and led Sasha onward. The stairs ended at the start of a winding, narrow pathway that delved deeper into the stone even as it sloped down.

“Can I ask something?” Sasha asked.

“Go ahead.”

“Does eating a shifter do something other than let you change back and forth? I’ve never seen a demon using more than one—element, I guess?”

She looked over her shoulder to show Sasha her grin. “You’re very astute. Yes, my ability to also use lightning came from eating the shifter. Most lore states that one additional range of high level magic is acquired when we do that.”

“What if you only get blood? That’s the deal Annie has with Mikasa and Eren.”

“It would have the same effect. We just like having a full meal.”

Sasha frowned down at her feet. “So it’s even more important to stop Barghest.” She glanced up. “Um. Say—just say that Barghest _does_ get Mikasa’s body. What would happen?”

“I couldn’t tell you what other magic he would get,” Kailas said. “It could be lightning like mine. It could be some other element, or something like flight. I suggest not letting it happen.”

“Yeah,” Sasha whispered. She stopped when Kailas did, holding her breath as they slipped into an even narrower passage. It was a shorter path that led to a hole only large enough for one person. Kailas went first, slowly dropping down on lightning. Sasha followed, biting her lip as she sank in darkness. Past her feet, she could see dim gray light. Kailas took her hands when she reached the bottom, and Sasha stared without caring about the shock on her face.

All around them was crude wrought iron, creating a tiny square room. It the center of the room was an even tinier cell of thick bars going from floor to ceiling, and within the cell was a tall burly man with red sigils coiling up his arms in thick bands to create a helix pattern. He spotted them and came to the edge of the cell, pressing his hands against the bars without reaching past them.

“Finally,” he said with a smile. “I thought you’d called it off with how long you took.”

“We should have at least one hour, barring any sudden changes,” Kailas replied. She started forward, but Sasha hurried on ahead to reach past the bars and offer her hand. The man looked startled for a moment before taking her hand and shaking.

“I’m Reiner Braun,” he said. “Word says your tech comes to me.”

“Yeah!” Sasha said with a smile. “I didn’t think I’d get to talk to you!”

“If the Dragon wants it, the lore-keeper finds a way to make it happen,” he said. “Okay—can you get past the bars?”

“Uh.” She looked at the gap between the bars and measured it with her hands. “It looks big enough for _you_ to get through.”

“I can’t, and I’ll show you why on this side.”

She hesitated, but sidled between two bars. When she was inside, she looked where Reiner pointed. All up and down the inside of the bars were complex carvings.

“These are all barrier spells,” he said. “I’d need someone who either _isn’t_ a demon or who’s a _really_ powerful demon to break some of these bars to get free.”

She looked around, seeing carvings on all of the bars. “Demons can’t get past these?”

“No.”

“Then who carved them?”

“Me,” he said quietly. Because she stared at him, he said, “The Leviathan can form constructs that are able to possess and control your body. He got one in me and I carved all of these.”

“And because it’s all iron, no one but the Leviathan or the Dragon can break it,” Kailas said. She drew a long sheet of paper out of nothingness, offering it at the edge of the bars. Sasha took it, sitting down when Reiner tugged on her arm.

“Keep watch,” he said to Kailas, and he lay the sheet out before them. “Okay, we need to go through this fast. How many people have tech?”

“Six,” Sasha replied. “Me, Mikasa, Annie, Mina, Historia, and Ymir. Ymir said Mina’s morpher goes to Bertholdt Fubar, Historia goes to her, and Mikasa’s goes to the Dragon.”

He thought. “Humans need weapons.”

“Gimme a bow,” she said. “I’m really, really awesome with a bow.”

He nodded, staring at the paper. “Bow and arrows.” His brows came together. “How tall are the other two?”

“Mina’s only a few inches shorter than me, but Historia’s tiny. She’s shorter than Annie.”

After a few seconds more of thought, he smirked. “Sword and spear. Perfect. Okay, let me have your dominant hand.”

“Are you gonna bite me?”

“I—no—what? No, not that. Come on, which hand do you write with?”

She raised her right hand. He nodded and moved to kneel behind her.

“Uh, Reiner?”

“First finger out like you’re drawing with it,” he said. “You’re going to write these out.”

She nodded and let him take her wrist when she had extended her finger. The sigils on his arm grew brighter, red light trailing down to wind around her hand.

“Okay, warding spells first,” he said, starting to draw symbols and characters she almost recognized. “Draw these on paper as seals and put them on things you don’t want a demon near.”

She nodded, studying the spells the light etched into the paper. Her focus grew sharper when he drew the shape of a bow and started to add more spells.

“Spells of power,” he said, “and spells to prevent breaking. This can be made of any material you can carve into.” He drew an arrowhead and surrounded it with spells. He said, “Fire, lightning, ice, destruction, and a seal on demonic power. You need to use iron for the arrowheads—shafts can be anything that’s strong.”

She nodded again, moving the paper to one side to give him more space. His next drawing was of a sword, and he drew on either side of the blade and at the guard.

“Spells of power for one side,” he said, “and to prevent breaking on the other. Mixed in are Bertholdt’s sigils so Mina can tap into his power more directly.”

“What could she do with it?”

“We can tap into raw energy,” he said. “That’s what you’re seeing on your hand. On the sword, it’s as good as any spell of destruction on your arrows.”

She grinned. “ _Sweet_. Okay, you said a—”

“Reiner,” Kailas said, voice low and rumbling.

They both turned to find coiling waves of fire and lightning rising from Kailas’s shoulders as she stared at the hole in the ceiling.

“I would hurry up,” she said.

Sasha felt the blood drain from her face, but pulled the paper over to get another blank space. Reiner quickly drew a spear, an array of spells and Lichtenberg sigils around it.

“Iron for the spearhead,” he said in a whisper. “Deep carvings for spells of power, channeling Ymir’s lightning, and binding it to harm demons _only_. It’ll make it impossible to hurt humans—it’ll go straight through you like a ghost.”

“ _Reiner_ ,” Kailas hissed.

“You said an hour!” he snarled back.

“That was if Barghest didn’t come near here for no reason! Send her back _now_!”

Sasha froze. She stared at the hole in the ceiling, eyes widening because she could see the flickering light of a dark fire coming closer. The chill of dread filled her; she began to shake. Reiner grabbed the paper, crumpled it up, and threw it at Kailas. She flicked fire at it, and it burned up without a trace. Before Sasha could protest, Reiner brought her left hand to his mouth, said, “Sorry,” and bit the side of her hand hard enough to break skin and bone. Sasha screamed aloud, partly from shock and mostly from pain.

Laughter echoed out of the ceiling, so hateful and mocking that Sasha did not recognize the voice that created it. Crying from the pain, she looked at the ceiling. The tears in her eyes blurred the figure that dropped down. She blinked hard to clear her eyes.

Mikasa was sprinting across the room, bare arms covered in glowing red sigils. A vicious fanged grin was on her face; her eyes were solid red. She lifted both hands, filled with black fire, and leapt at the cell even as Kailas moved to intercept.

Sasha screamed again, high with terror. She was grabbed from behind and pulled backward with multiple hands.

“ _Sasha_!” Connie shouted.

She opened her eyes. She stared at the ceiling of Historia’s apartment. Her face was covered in tears and her left hand was in more pain than she had ever experienced. Connie came into view as she started to hyperventilate. He took her face in hand, patting her cheeks gently.

“Sasha,” he said, “it’s okay. Come on, focus on me. We’ve got you—just breathe.”

“Oh my God, Sasha—your _hand_ ,” Mina said. “Historia, where do you keep your first aid?”

“Bathroom,” Historia said faintly. “Bath—hang on, hang on.” She rushed away, Ymir on her heels.

“Connie, get her to sit up,” Annie said.

She saw him nod and felt him take hold of her shoulders. He said, “Okay, babe, we’re sittin’ up. It’s still okay, so sit up nice and easy.”

Whimpering, she nodded and let him help her sit up. She grabbed him with her right arm when she could, holding on with a shaky death grip as she cried on his shoulder. He hugged her just as tight, but there was no hint of shaking in him.

“I’ve got you,” he said. “You’re okay.”

“Sasha, let me have your left hand,” Annie said. “I’m going to make it hurt less, all right?”

Hiccuping from the force of her crying, she gingerly offered her hand to one side. She glanced over as Annie took her wrist, eyes going wide at the right of her bloody, broken hand.

“B-but,” she sobbed, “I w-was just _d-dreaming_.”

“You got your soul summoned,” Ymir said, close behind Historia as she returned with a red metal box. “I didn’t think—” She and Historia stopped short when someone knocked hard on the door. Ymir was too startled to react when Historia shoved the box into her hands and went to the door. Sasha hid her face in Connie’s shoulder to stay quiet.

“Yes?” Historia said impatiently after wrenching the door open.

“What the hell is the screaming about?” a man snapped at her. “D’you know what time it—”

“It’s eight forty-eight in the morning on a Saturday!” she shouted back. “We waited until we heard the kids downstairs scream like usual before watching horror stuff on youtube, so if you’re coming to give _me_ shit and not _them_ , you’re a petty asshole who’s probably only brave enough to yell at a tiny woman! Get away from my door!”

There was no time for a rebuttal before Historia slammed the door in his face and locked it. She walked into the living room with red in her cheeks and ferocity in her eyes. Ymir looked utterly smitten as she handed the box back.

“Wh-what happened t’me?” Sasha asked.

“Uh,” Ymir said, coming out of a daze. She went to sit next to Annie, holding Sasha’s arm steady as Annie murmured. “Soul summoning. Demons who know the spell can bring the soul of a sleeping human into the underworld.” She cleared her throat. “Usually we don’t wake you up with a bite _that_ hard. Sorry.”

“It doesn’t even matter!” Sasha coughed. “I didn’t bring anything back!”

“No, Sasha, look!” Armin said.

She lifted her head. Armin and Eren stood nearby, holding up a swath of butcher paper covered in the spells and drawings Reiner had written with her hand.

“You started sleepwalking about an hour ago and Ymir got some paper and a marker out!” Eren said. “You drew all of these in your sleep!”

Sasha stared. She smiled tentatively. “I did it?”

“You did _awesome_ ,” Connie said.

A tiny laugh fell from her mouth. The pain in her hand lessened; she looked over to see blue crystal knitting the broken bones together. A pass of Annie’s palm over the open wound sealed it in more crystal, leaving a manageable ache throbbing there.

“That should handle it so you do have to go to the hospital,” Annie said as Historia started to mop up the worst of the blood on her hand. “But keep it covered so you don’t get weird questions over the next week.”

“‘Kay,” Sasha whispered, nodding. She sniffed and added, “Sorry if I got anyone bloody.”

“Shh,” Historia said. “We can wash stuff. Come on, let’s wash your hand before we wrap it.”

She nodded and took Connie’s help to stand. Holding her wrist steady, she started to follow Historia out of the room. Her pace slowed when she spotted drops of blood on the floor. When she looked around, she could not see Mikasa. Annie pushed her forward when she opened her mouth, following her and Historia into the bathroom with Mina and Ymir following.

Mikasa sat on the edge of the tub, feet inside and body tilted forward. When she glanced over her shoulder on their approach, Sasha could see that her nose was broken and her lips and chin were covered in blood. She smiled slightly and waved with the hand she wasn’t using to apply pressure on her nose.

“Hey Sasha,” she said in a stuffed-up voice. “I’m okay, so don’t worry.”

“But—how’d—”

“You decked me,” she replied. “Ymir said not to reach for you from the front, so…I had it coming.” She coughed a laugh, blood splattering off her lips. “I’m okay, I promise.”

Sasha stared until Annie took one of the towels hanging on a bar and sat next to Mikasa to clean the blood from her face. She swallowed and went to the sink with Historia. Her hands still trembled as she washed them, but Historia’s were steady as she dried them and applied antiseptic cream over the edges of the wound. Mina stepped in to bandage and wrap her hand while Historia washed her hands in turn.

“We can have Petra double check it a little later,” Mina said. “But you look okay so far with the crystal.”

“Thank you,” Sasha said as she wiggled her fingers. “Thank you too, Annie.”

“You’re welcome,” Annie said. “But what did you see down there that made you scream?”

“My hand got bit, that’s all,” she replied, voice growing quiet.

“You screamed again _after_ the bite showed up,” Annie said, gesturing at the bandages. “And whoever bit you really didn’t have to bit that hard. What’d you see?”

She froze. Her eyes drifted to Mikasa. She swallowed against the lump in her throat and said, “Mika? Can…I see your arms?”

Annie went still as Mikasa turned slightly. They looked at each other before Mikasa pushed her sleeves up to her elbows. The seals were still in place; Barghest’s sigils had not advanced. Sasha sighed her, knees weakening out of relief. She sat down on the fluffy green mat in front of the sink and put her face against her knees. She did not realize she was crying until Mina knelt down and put a hand on her back.

“Sasha, what did you see?” Mina asked.

“I thought—I thought he got Mikasa,” Sasha said, “and that she was there.” She coughed against her legs before lifting her head. “He looked just like you, Mika.”

Mikasa gaped. “But—” She looked at Annie. “That wasn’t it, was it? Was I sleepwalking? Did I get summoned, too?”

“You didn’t go anywhere until Ymir woke both of us,” Annie said. “It wasn’t you.”

“He had sigils all the way up his arms,” Sasha said, pointing at her own shoulders. “But you don’t.” She sighed, letting her head fall forward. “Jesus, that made me so scared.” She looked up and back when a knock sounded on the doorframe. Ymir stood there, looking pensive.

“It sounds like he made a doppelgänger of her,” Ymir said. “What did its eyes look like?”

“Completely red, lid to lid,” Sasha replied. “Is…that good or bad?”

“It’s good. Sorta. He can’t control her, but it’ll freak out anyone who sees it down there.”

“What about _up here_?” Mikasa asked. “Can he be out of the underworld in that body?”

Ymir shook her head. “A doppel’ is like our shadow. It’s gotta be really strong to exist, and if it doesn’t even have real eyes, it’s not gonna function for long.”

“Could he make it stronger?” Mikasa asked.

Ymir hesitated; she looked at Annie. Annie sighed and wiped away the worst of the blood on Mikasa’s chin.

“That’s part of what the seals stop,” Annie said quietly. “So if you think the seals are getting weaker for any reason, tell me.”

Mikasa nodded without hesitation, and she let Annie wipe away the remaining blood. By then, her nose had reset, leaving behind black eyes. She winced when she touched the end of her nose; the bloody towel made her sigh.

“Sorry, Historia,” she said.

“I’ll get a new one if it doesn’t wash out,” Historia said. “It’s okay.” She looked between them all, hesitance in her face for only a moment before she said, “Do you guys want breakfast?”

“I could go for donuts,” Mikasa said as she turned on the water to clean her feet.

“Donuts?” Annie and Ymir asked in unison.

Sasha and Mina stared at each other. Turning to Mikasa and Historia, they gaped.

“ _Neither_ of you gave your girlfriends donuts?” Sasha asked. “ _Ever_?”

“I almost never eat them!” Mikasa protested. “And Eren doesn’t bring food to us unless I tell him what to bring!”

“Ever since he gave me an energy drink,” Annie grumbled.

“He’s still sorry for that.”

Annie grumbled noise, but made no words. She shuffled her feet in the water to clean them, taking another towel for her and Mikasa to dry off with. When they were out of the tub, Sasha stood up.

“Okay,” she sighed. “I can go out with someone who can pay for a ton of donuts.”

“I wanna go,” Ymir said. “‘Sides, my card thing never runs out.”

“You have an unlimited credit card?”

“Sorta. Money’s just a dumb construct anyway, so lore-keepers know spells to create unlimited sources of money. We’re special.” She took hold of Sasha’s shirt and tugged. “C’mon, I wanna know what this stuff is.”

Sasha turned and followed her out of the bathroom. In the living room, the boys had all fallen back to sleep. She yawned as she took her jacket and went to the entryway. She shoved her feet into her sneakers, but did not turn the lock because she looked at Ymir closely.

“What?” said Ymir.

“Boxers don’t count as pants.”

“They cover my crotch and my ass! That’s pants!”

“Oh my God, please go put on jeans or something.” She waited through Ymir grumbling, stomping away, and returning in a pair of loose, grungy jeans. They left after Ymir grabbed a jacket, heading down to the sidewalk. Sasha took the lead, gingerly putting her left hand into her jacket pocket.

“Is a donut good?” Ymir asked.

“In that incredibly bad for your health way, yeah. Does Historia do the eating healthy thing?”

“‘Eating healthy’ means eating good food regularly, right? No skipping food.”

Sasha took the opportunity of the light turning against them to look at Ymir. Ymir looked back with a raised brow.

“Um,” Sasha said quietly. “Does Historia…do that?”

“Not on purpose, but yeah. She forgets a lot because she’s doing other stuff, so I make her stop and eat. She’s seriously too little.” She rolled her shoulders to stretch, groaning when something popped. “That’s a bullshit thing humans have going on, making yourselves so busy that you forget to eat when you have such good food.”

“Do demons prefer to eat humans with more meat on their bones?”

Ymir gave her a look. Before the light turned, she smirked. “When we _want_ meat, yeah. Souls don’t need physical mass.” Her smirk grew smug when she added, “And that ain’t exactly how I’m _eating_ Historia, so that doesn’t matter at all.” She cackled at the massive blush that appeared on Sasha’s face, skipping across the street while Sasha hurried after her. When another crosswalk stopped them, she sighed and put her hands behind her head.

“Man, I hate going on streets,” she said. “So slow.”

“Ymir?” Sasha asked, rubbing the blush from her face.

“Yeah?”

“Why did Reiss try to give you Historia?” She met Ymir’s eyes steadily, even as Ymir raised a brow.

“Let’s talk about that outta polite earshot,” Ymir murmured, glancing about. “Pretty sure everyone’s wondering about it.”

“Yeah,” Sasha said with a nod. She left it alone for the rest of the short journey, only speaking again when they reached a donut shop. Left hand steadfastly in her pocket, she directed Ymir in picking donuts. Though her intent was only to pick two dozen, the smell of the sugar, frosting, and glaze made Ymir’s eyes widen and her nose twitch.

She picked two dozen more, grinning at the startled look on the cashier’s face when she set four boxes on the counter. Sasha turned around, putting a hand on her brow. She went for the door when Ymir laughed her thanks and drew closer.

“Holy _shit_ , these smell amazing!” Ymir giggled as they went along. She was all but skipping again as she headed back; Sasha had to jog in places to keep up. “I’m buyin’ these for Historia all the time if she likes ‘em!”

Smiling, almost laughing at the infectious cheer, Sasha chased after her when her pace increased. Exhaustion was beaten back, even when they jogged up the stairs. The boys were mostly awake when they arrived, sitting up and rubbing the stubble on their faces. Mikasa, however, was drowsing on the couch, head on Annie’s shoulder while Annie sat in her lap and pet her hair.

“Damn, Annie,” Ymir said. “You’re at least ten times worse than I am about cuddling.”

Annie took one hand from Mikasa’s hair to aim her middle finger over her shoulder. She said, “Yours hasn’t been through the kind of stuff mine has lately. This is for her to relax.”

“‘M still awake, Annie,” Mikasa mumbled. “Don’t talk like I’m not.” She let out an indistinct sound when Annie put her hand back in her hair and resumed petting.

“C’mon, don’t send her back to sleep,” Ymir said. “I wanna try these things.”

Annie sighed, but took her hands away and moved out of Mikasa’s lap. Her eyes narrowed when Ymir pulled the coffee table over and put the boxes on it.

“Are donuts,” Annie said, “like… _cakes_? Boxes like that have those weird sheet cakes in them, don’t they?” Her eyes widened and her brows went for her hairline when she caught the scent coming from the boxes.

“Ymir, how many did you _get_?” Historia asked.

“A lot, since they smell awesome,” Ymir replied.

“They smell like waffles and syrup,” Annie said. “But—not?”

“They’re pastries,” Sasha laughed. She opened the top box, muffling her giggles because Annie’s eyes widened even further. “For God’s sake, have one already.”

Spoiled for choice and completely stymied, Annie sat pinned to the couch. Mikasa chuckled and took a glazed donut from the box, putting it in Annie’s hands.

“Remember to breathe so you don’t get hiccups,” she said, ruffling Annie’s hair. She laughed when Annie thumped her head against her shoulder, taking a chocolate donut for herself. They each took a donut and started to eat.

Sasha leaned against Connie to relax, but watched Annie and Ymir as she ate. Much like when she had Chinese, Annie drew her legs up to her chest and took a tentative bite. Her ears twitched, shoulders rising as her toes flexed. She leaned against Mikasa with pleasure on her face, chewing for a long while to savor each bite. Ymir, by contrast, took the time to lick off most of the frosting before eating the donut properly.

“Ymir, why’re you eating it like that?” Historia asked, hiding her mouth as she giggled.

“I wanna see how they taste separately,” she replied. “It’s interesting.” She paused to watch Historia eat, eventually nodding when Historia finished her first donut and took another.

“What, are you making sure she doesn’t get sick off these?” Eren asked. When everyone looked at him, he said, “She’s watching her eat like I watch Armin when I think _he’ll_ get sick off something.”

Ymir raised a brow. Smoothly, she pulled Historia into her lap and rested her chin on her head.

“I’m making sure she likes ‘em so I know if I should get ‘em for her,” she said. “And,” she added, tapping Historia’s nose, “yes, I’m making sure she doesn’t get sick.”

“Ymir, you just got frosting on my nose,” Historia said, struggling not to laugh.

“Better than _up_ your nose.” She grinned when Historia laughed outright.

“Okay, this is really weird to watch,” Eren said. “Didn’t you say that she was given to you to _eat_?”

“Yeah. So?”

“You’re acting like _them_ ,” Eren said, jabbing his thumb at Sasha and Connie. “You’re being dorks at each other.”

“So what?”

“It’s—come on, you’re a demon! Why aren’t you acting like an asshole like An—”

Armin shoved a donut into Eren’s mouth before he could complete his sentence. He cleared his throat loudly while Annie glowered and Eren focused on chewing.

“We’re still wondering how you two…met?” Armin said. “You said Mayor Reiss tried to _give_ you Historia, but what exactly happened? I don’t think anyone knew he had a daughter that’s still alive.”

“Well, you weren’t supposed to,” Historia replied. “He paid my mother _a lot_ to make sure she never told his wife and family about me.” She rubbed the frosting off her nose. Though she opened her mouth to continue, she hesitated.

“Reiss’ deal with the Leviathan was to try to resurrect his _dead_ family,” Ymir said. “He threw that fit that a lot of humans throw when their families die in car crashes. When ‘God’ didn’t answer his pissy little prayers, he tried to summon a demon to make a deal.”

“Wait, what’s the emphasis for?” Marco asked. “Are you saying God doesn’t exist?”

“Fuck if I know, man,” Ymir said. “I know about demons and spirits, not about any of that religion shit humans make up. I made the connection like I usually do and let him start talking to other demons. But when he figured out that I’m a lore-keeper and I know about more stuff than the Leviathan does, he tried to make a deal just with me.”

“Take my bastard and give me back my family,” Mikasa said quietly, “was that it?”

“Yep,” Historia said, looking at the floor. “That was it.”

“Then why not take the deal?” Connie asked through a mouthful of donut. “She’s pretty cute and her soul is probably nice.” He winced when Sasha hit his shoulder.

“Because you can’t resurrect the dead, for one,” Ymir said. “Not even the Dragon can do that shit. And for two, Historia had fuckin’ steel-toe _sneakers_ on when he delivered her to the hotel I was using, and she broke my kneecap to try and get away.”

“Ymir, for fuck’s sake,” Annie sighed. “ _That’s_ why you went on the run with her?”

“Hey, she did that without any special powers!” Ymir said. “I haven’t met a lot of humans that desperate to live! And she’s pretty and cunning as hell, so you can park your ass in _your_ human’s lap and shut up.”

Annie sighed again, but did not struggle when Mikasa picked her up and set her in her lap. She settled when she had taken another donut to eat.

“So the Leviathan is just stringing Reiss along?” Marco asked.

“Yep,” said Ymir. “And he’s getting plenty of us killed fighting you-slash-us-too-now. Pretty sure he’s trying to thin out demons that might go up against him.”

“Which is still a stupid idea,” Annie grumbled. “He can’t be the Dragon, even if he had an entire army of us.”

“She’s really that powerful?” Mikasa asked, stopping short in reaching for another donut.

“Y’know all those fancy titles that devil guy gets in the big religions?” Ymir said after swallowing a bite. “Like ‘the adversary,’ ‘Abaddon,’ or ‘god of this age’?”

“Yeah…”

“All her. The only one that’s _not_ her is ‘Leviathan,’ and that’s because he claimed it and she thought it was too hilarious to take away.”

“Why is it funny to her?” Mina asked.

Both Annie and Ymir froze. Annie curled up in Mikasa’s lap, trying to look small, and Ymir hid her face in Historia’s hair. They all boggled, but when the fear in Annie’s eyes became clear, even Eren sat forward as though to say something comforting.

“Guys, what’s wrong?” Sasha asked, voice soft from an anxious mouth.

“Um,” Annie said very quietly. She swallowed hard when Mikasa wrapped her ams around her. “Um. It’s…we all know why she thinks it’s funny. It’s just…something that really pisses him off. Like—so pissed he’s devoured other demons over it.”

“What is it?” Historia asked, squeezing Ymir’s hand.

“Know how Annie is pretty short in her human form?” Ymir said. “He’s…uh…a little bit shorter than her in his human form.”

“He eats people if they call him _short_?” Connie asked. He rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, and muttered, “He sounds like he’s _five_.”

“The Dragon once had the eastern lore-keeper follow the Leviathan around the underworld for a thousand days,” Ymir said. “She knows the spells to shift us out of our titan form, so she kept forcing him back into his human form and…uh…calling him every word for ‘short’ she knows.”

“The Dragon had Kailas do that?” Sasha asked.

“The Dragon wanted him _pissed_ , so why not pick someone who’s stupidly tall and who can be a massive asshole when she wants to?”

She fidgeted. “Is that why Barghest went after her…girlfriend? Lover?”

“Little bit, yeah,” Ymir said, taking another donut. “For the most part, Barghest is just a huge prick because he knows how powerful he is and he can wreck a lot of people’s shit without breaking a sweat.” She cleared her throat, but looked distinctly pleased when she muttered, “Can’t wreck two dragons, though, so ha ha.”

Mikasa looked down. She sighed.

Annie glowered at Ymir. Ymir, in turn, flailed for a moment and struggled to swallow what was in her mouth. She coughed to clear her throat.

“His power doesn’t overshadow the Dragon’s!” she said. “It’ll be fine!”

“Annie, it’s all right,” Mikasa said. “It’s just…daunting.”

“He’s not getting you,” Annie grumbled.

“I know, I know,” Mikasa chuckled. “The weapons Sasha drew up should help.”

“I don’t know where we’re gonna get all the iron I need,” Sasha said. “Or how I’m gonna be able to carve into it.”

“Hanji and I can find it,” Mina said. “It shouldn’t be too hard to tweak some of my tools to do metalwork.” She turned to look at the drawings, chewing as she thought. “I get the bow and arrows, Sasha, but what’s behind the rest?”

“The sword’s for you and the spear’s for Historia,” Sasha said through a mouthful of dough.

“Why a _spear_ for me?” Historia asked.

“You got tiny arms, babe,” Ymir said. “Any extra reach we can give you is for the best.”

“I don’t know how to fight with a spear, though.”

“That’s what my magic is for,” Ymir said. “I know what to put on the spear so you can use it like a badass.”

“It’s not going to possess me or anything, will it?”

Ymir paused in taking a bite. She thought. After a moment, she said, “Nah, I got spells that won’t do that. You’ll be fine.”

“You know spells that’d do that?” Connie asked.

Ymir snorted with laughter. “What’re you, serious? Humans are so fuckin’ easy to put under the sway. Even mid-echelon demons can do that.”

“Are demons immune?” Marco asked.

“No,” Sasha said without thinking. She looked up to see Annie and Ymir staring at her. Blushing without knowing why, she said, “Reiner said the Leviathan used some construct thing to possess _him_ and made him make his own prison.”

They both sighed. Annie glanced at Ymir. When Ymir nodded, she said, “It takes a lot to put us under, and the more the higher you get. The Dragon’s impossible and the eastern lore-keeper is next. But the Leviathan…we’re vulnerable.”

“Not if I can help it,” Mikasa muttered, wrapping her arms around Annie again. “If Barghest’s not getting me, the Leviathan’s not getting you.”

For a few moments, Annie sat still with a startled expression on her face. She took hold of Mikasa’s hands before drawing her legs up to hide them.

Quiet, shy, she said, “Thanks.”

It was easy to grow quiet then, and to look away to give them a sense of privacy. Sasha reached for Connie’s hand as he reached for hers. Neither of them minded that their fingers smeared frosting on each other’s hands.

————

Hanji all but took Mikasa’s morpher away that evening when they barred her from ranger duty for two weeks. There was such sternness in their voice as they lectured Mikasa, Ymir, and Historia that all three of them stood cowed in the command center. Even Ymir looked down when Hanji snapped at her, something like mortification on her face.

“Do you have _any_ idea how scared you made all of us?” Hanji demanded, glaring at Ymir and Historia. “It wasn’t bad enough to make us think we’d lost morphers to demons, but you had let loose a hellhound! What even possessed you to _steal_ them?”

“I was scared you wouldn’t believe Ymir wasn’t controlling me!” Historia protested.

“I would’ve been happy to give you a chance if you’d told us about your father being the one who made a deal, but that didn’t seem to cross your mind!”

“You didn’t even really believe it when I told you my real name! You would’ve tried to kill Ymir without listening to either of us! We want to help!”

“Then you better be ready to train your asses off while Mikasa and Sasha are benched!”

“Hanji,” Petra said, catching their wrist. “That’s enough yelling at them. They know what they did.”

Hanji looked at her. They looked at Petra’s hand on their wrist, and they sighed. They rubbed their face with their free hand, pushing their glasses up onto their head.

“I’m sorry,” they said weakly. “I just—the last few days have been really bad.”

“We know,” Ymir said. “Sorry.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Hanji said, shaking their head. “Yelling at you is uncalled for at this point and I was venting inappropriately. I won’t do it again.” They looked at Mikasa and added, “As long as you stay benched for two weeks, anyway.”

“I will, I promise,” Mikasa said, holding up her hands. “I’ll help Sasha work on the weapons.”

“Good, because I’m having the iron sent to my office by the Tuesday after next. Annie can grab it and bring it here when—”

“Can’t,” Annie said flatly.

“What?”

“You ordered pure iron. I can’t do anything with it.”

Hanji stared. “Even if it’s in a box or a case?”

“How much will it weigh?”

“Between twenty and thirty pounds. I have a hand truck you can use if that’s too much.”

Annie frowned as she looked at the floor. Mikasa smiled slightly and rubbed Annie’s head. “I’ll grab it when it comes in so you don’t have to.”

“Fine,” she muttered. “Just don’t bring any home.”

At the time, Sasha could not think to ask anything of it. Only when she received a text from Mikasa ten days later on a Tuesday afternoon did she have meaningful words. Petra was the one who teleported them into the command center, but she was already heading for the door when they appeared.

“Call from the hospital!” she said over her shoulder. “Tools and drawing on the worktable!”

They stared after her for a moment, looking at each other when her footsteps faded. Mikasa smiled and shrugged.

“I guess we have to be extra careful when we’re carving,” she said. “I don’t want to go to the ER.”

“You’re not even going to do the carvings,” Sasha replied. She looked at the boxes on the hand truck, sighing. “I really hope we don’t have to _make_ a sword or a spearhead.”

“I think Hanji thought of that,” Mikasa replied. “It’s why it took a while to get here.” She pulled the truck along to the worktable in one corner. The first box she set on the table was longer than the others, though the second was relatively close. The last box was the heaviest, based on the way Mikasa’s brows rose.

“I also think Hanji got you a _lot_ of arrowheads,” she said, setting the box down and opening it. Within the box was bubble wrap, bags of air, and another box. She pulled the lid off, brows rising further. “Make that sure.”

Sasha looked up from pulling over two stools, seeing Mikasa point into the box. When she arrived, she found that the box contained dozens of large iron arrowheads, sharp, glinting darkly, and lined up in neat rows. Careful to avoid the edges, she picked one up and peered at it.

“That’s like a razor,” she said quietly.

“It’s probably not a bad idea for you to morph to work on these,” Mikasa said, sitting on one of the stools. “It’ll keep your fingers from getting nicked.”

“Christ, no kidding,” she muttered before morphing. She put her helmet aside, flexed her left hand to test its range of motion in the suit, and opened the other boxes. The longest box held a spearhead and its body, separate from each other, and the last box held a double-edged sword. She lay them all out before pulling over the sheet of spells and drawings. Mikasa offered what looked like tools used for clay: one similar to a scalpel, one a hook, and one a shallow scoop. Near to the top of each tool was a tiny button; clicking them made the edges of the tools glow orange and hum softly.

“Well,” Sasha said, peering at the edged tool. She looked into the box of arrowheads. Though she meant to take one, she spotted an iron plate, thick and broad. “Oh thank God, they got me a piece to practice on.” She took the plate and set it down on the table. A slow, measure drag of the tool over the iron let her see how it would cut into the metal with little effort. The hook and scoop were the same, taking out red-hot shreds of iron that cooled in seconds.

“That’s promising,” Mikasa said. “Just don’t get any of it on me.”

“Why was Annie so annoyed at the iron?” Sasha asked, starting to cut into the arrowheads. “It didn’t look like it was _hurting_ Reiner when I was down there.”

“She said iron weapons make injuries that take way longer to heal from,” she replied. “And they hurt _way_ more.” She gestured to the spearhead and said, “Taking that to the heart could kill a mid-echelon demon. Annie doesn’t want to tempt fate, even as a high echelon.”

Sasha winced at the notion, carefully pushing the cooled slag to one side. “I’m sure Historia’s going to treat it like a bomb around her and Ymir. I’m kinda glad that some of these spells will make it like a ghost to humans. I didn’t think it’d be that huge.”

“You said it needed to be big to do all those carvings,” Mikasa said. She picked the spearhead up, looking at its fine, dark edge. After a moment, she set it down and said, “I’m happy not to get a weapon at this point.”

Too focused on carving in the spell for fire on an arrowhead, Sasha did not hear the quiet strain in Mikasa’s voice. Unaware, she asked, “Not wanting to get iron anywhere near Annie?”

“I don’t want it to be available if something happens to me,” Mikasa replied.

Sasha did not pick up another arrowhead. She looked at Mikasa and said, “Are you…doing okay?”

Mikasa looked at her, brows rising, and held up her hands. “I’m okay, I promise! As much as I can be, I mean. But it makes me really nervous to think of iron weapons in our apartment if anything happens.” She chuckled wearily. “It’s like having a shotgun in a house with a little kid. Except the shotgun is a demon after me and the little kid is also a demon who’s after me, but for nicer reasons.”

Sasha snorted with laughter, hurrying to hide her mouth as she giggled. “You should tell Annie that once we’ve killed Barghest.”

“Not now?”

“Not unless she’s used to your awful sense of humor.”

“She laughs at dad jokes now.”

She gave up and laughed aloud. “Oh God, you finally found someone to share those stupid things with! All the more reason to make sure we kill Barghest, right?”

“Right,” she said with a smile. She stared when Sasha offered one of the arrowheads.

“Try to throw this into a wall,” Sasha said. “This one’s got ice on it.”

“This isn’t a knife to throw,” Mikasa muttered, but she took the arrowhead regardless. She toyed with it to find her grip, looking around the room. The only empty wall space was near the door across the room. Gauging the distance, Mikasa flicked the arrowhead through the air. It tip buried itself in the wall; ice crystals exploded on the wall around it.

“It works!” Sasha screamed, hands in the air. “Oh my God, I did it right!”

“Sasha, _Jesus_!” Mikasa laughed. She went to retrieve the arrowhead, breaking the ice. “That’s amazing! It’s not even dulled!”

“Gimme that spearhead!” Sasha said in a rush of giggles, reaching to take it. “Now I know what I’m doing!” She went quiet to concentrate, but smiled as she carved and etched. She took her time on the Lichtenberg figures, and even more time on the spells that would make it safe for humans. When she was done, she stared at it.

“Wait,” she said. “How do we test this one?”

Mikasa stared at it. Her eyes narrowed as she thought. Without speaking, she pushed her sleeves up to her elbows and held out a hand. Sasha gave her the spearhead, biting her lip when Mikasa put the edge to the back of her hand.

“Scientific testing’s not always pretty, right?” she said weakly. She made to draw the edge across her hand, but inhaled sharply because the spearhead simply sank into her flesh without cutting. They both stared; they glanced at each other. Mikasa grit her teeth, adjusted her grip, and pulled the spearhead up her hand and toward her wrist. When it reached the sigils there, it began to cut. Mikasa spat curses and tried to wrench the spearhead back the way it came, but it slipped out of her hand and started to tilt and cut even deeper.

As Mikasa screamed from pain and panic alike, Sasha rushed to grab the spearhead and pulled it out of her arm as gingerly as she could. She threw it onto the table as Mikasa closed her hand around her wrist, swearing viciously. Sasha saw blood leaking past her fingers and went pale.

“Mikasa!” she said, reaching to take her arm. “Oh no, oh no, Mika, I’m sorry, I screwed it up!”

Mikasa shook her head, sweat on her brow. She pulled away and slammed her hand down on the worktable. She grabbed the spearhead.

“Not science if you can’t replicate it, right?” she snarled. Before Sasha could stop her, she drove the spearhead into the table through her hand. Again, it did not cut. Slowly, Mikasa drew her hand away perpendicular to the spearhead. It passed through her hand as though it did not exist.

Mikasa grit her teeth, pulled the spearhead free, and brought the tip to the back of her hand. Shaking, she slipped it under her skin and brought it up her arm. When the edge met the sigils on her wrist, it began to cut her flesh. Again, when she tried to pull the spearhead out of her arm, it slipped out of her grasp and started to tilt from its own weight.

“ _Ow_!” Mikasa bellowed, sparks on her breath and over her sharpened eyeteeth. Sasha took the spearhead from her arm and threw it onto the table once more. For a full minute, Mikasa sat swearing and holding tight to her bloody wrist.

“Mikasa?” Sasha said, reaching for her hands. “Look at me—are you okay?”

“I’m—fine,” Mikasa coughed out. “Jesus, it feels like I tore out all the muscles where it cut. I couldn’t move it after it cut into the sigils.” She opened her hand gingerly, looking at the wounds. They both stared at the bright, gleaming blood for a long while.

“Sasha,” Mikasa said quietly.

“What?”

“Don’t tell anyone about this. Please.”

Sasha heard the calm clarity in Mikasa’s voice and saw the focus in her eyes. She bit her lip, bit her tongue, and told the truth when she said, “I won’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Name all the references I'm making in this chapter and win an e-handshake.


End file.
